Thread: Texas governor signs into law bill to punish 'sanctuary cities'

Sun May 7, 2017 | 8:48pm EDT

Texas governor signs into law bill to punish 'sanctuary cities'

Texas governor Greg Abbott speaks during an interview on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange July 14, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

By Jon Herskovitz | AUSTIN, TEXAS

Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law on Sunday a measure to punish "sanctuary cities," despite a plea from police chiefs of the state's biggest cities to halt the bill they said would hinder their ability to fight crime.

The Texas measure comes as Republican U.S. President Donald Trump has made combating illegal immigration a priority. Texas, which has an estimated 1.5 million illegal immigrants and the longest border with Mexico of any U.S. state, has been at the forefront of the immigration debate.

“As governor, my top priority is public safety, and this bill furthers that objective by keeping dangerous criminals off our streets,” Abbott said in a statement.

The law will take effect on Sept. 1.

The Republican-dominated legislature passed the bill on party-line votes and sent the measure to Abbott earlier this month. It would punish local authorities who do not abide by requests to cooperate with federal immigration agents.

Police officials found to be in violation of the law could face removal from office, fines and up to a year in prison if convicted.

The measure also allows police to ask people about their immigration status during a lawful detention, even for minor infractions like jaywalking.

Any anti-sanctuary city measure may face a tough road after a federal judge in April blocked Trump's executive order seeking to withhold funds from local authorities that do not use their resources to advance federal immigration laws.

Democrats have warned the measure could lead to unconstitutional racial profiling and civil rights groups have promised to fight the Texas measure in court.

"This legislation is bad for Texas and will make our communities more dangerous for all," the police chiefs of cities including Houston and Dallas wrote in an opinion piece in the Dallas Morning News in late April.

They said immigration was a federal obligation and the law would stretch already meager resources by turning local police into immigration agents.

The police chiefs said the measure would widen a gap between police and immigrant communities, creating a class of silent victims and eliminating the potential for assistance from immigrants in solving or preventing crimes.

One of the sponsors of the bill, Republican state Representative Charlie Geren, said in House debate the bill would have no effect on immigrants in the country illegally if they had not committed a crime.

He also added there were no sanctuary cities in Texas at present and the measure would prevent any from emerging.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN18402L

by BOB PRICE
7 May 2017
Austin, TX
435 comments

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the State’s sanctuary city bill into law Sunday night during a Facebook Live event from his office. The new law is now the toughest anti-sanctuary city law in the United States and provides for criminal and civil penalties for police chiefs and sheriff’s that refuse to honor immigration detainers.

(video may be seen at the source link)

“Let’s be clear about something. We all support legal immigration. It helped to build America and Texas,” the governor said before signing the bill. “Legal immigration is different from harboring people who have committed dangerous crimes. This law cracks down on policies like the Travis County sheriff who declared she would not detain known criminals accused of violent crimes. Those policies are sanctuary city policies and won’t be tolerated in Texas.”

The bill, Senate Bill 4 by Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), passed both chambers of the legislature before coming to Abbott’s desk for signature. The law will go into effect on September 1, 2017. This provides time for departments like the Travis County Sheriff’s Office to come into compliance.

Following the bill’s passage by the legislature, Travis County Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez expressed her displeasure with the new law. “I am disappointed because this is not in the best interest of public safety,” the sheriff wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. It ties the hands of our law enforcement agency and pushes victims of crime into the shadows. While I hate seeing a state law like this come to pass, I have always followed the law and that will not change.”

Earlier this year, Travis County became the poster child for sanctuary cities when the sheriff led the nation in the first Immigration and Customs Enforcement Declined Detainer Outcome Report. That report revealed more than 70 percent of criminal aliens released nationwide after detainers were issued were in Travis County, Breitbart Texas reported.

Governor Abbott made the sanctuary city issue an emergency item for the Texas Legislature during his State of the State Address in January. The Texas Senate acted on the issue right away, passing SB4 in February. The bill went to the House where it sat until passage on April 27. The Senate confirmed the changes made by the House and sent the bill to Governor Abbott on May 3.

Texas attempted several times under then-Governor Rick Perry to pass sanctuary city legislation. The bill would pass one body of the legislature or the other but never both. This time, Governor Abbott was able to foster an environment whereby both chambers of the legislature could find their way through to final passage.

Following final passage, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said, “In the past six years, criminal aliens have been charged with more than 566,000 crimes in Texas including kidnapping, homicide, burglary and much more. There is no excuse for endangering our communities by allowing criminal aliens who have committed a crime to go free.”

“SB 4 will ensure that no liberal local official can flaunt the law,” Patrick added.

Key provisions in the bill call for criminal and civil penalties for Texas Sheriffs and chiefs of police who fail to honor immigration detainers issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, Breitbart Texas reported. It also includes a provision that allows police officers to inquire about the immigration status of a person they have detained.

Abbott says this provision is vastly different than the Arizona law that requires police officers to check immigration status on people they encounter. The Texas law “allows officers to check” the immigration status but does not require it. He said this provision of the bill has been tested and upheld, even by the liberal justices on the Supreme Court.

The bill also provides that an elected official who refuses to comply with the law can be removed from office, fined, and even jailed. “They could end up in the same jail with the criminals they are trying to protect,” Abbott told Breitbart Texas in an interview following the signing.

Despite rumors being spread by the bill’s opponents, SB4 prohibits an officer from asking about the immigration status of any crime victim or witness to a crime. An exception is included if the person’s immigration status is germane to the crime as in a human smuggling crime, or when the victim or witness could obtain a protected immigrant status under provisions provided to a witness or crime victim.

Abbott concluded his signing by saying, “There is a reason people come to American because we are a nation of laws and Texas is doing its best to keep it that way.”

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...-city-law-usa/

Oh what a beautiful picture of Governor Abbott holding up the signed law!! It looks like the way President Trump holds up his Executive Orders that he's signed. LOVE IT!! Thank you Texas, thank you Governor Abbott!! Thank you all so very very much!!!

LOVE YOU TEXAS!!!

by BOB PRICE
8 May 2017
Austin, TX
1,518 comments

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said law enforcement and other officials implementing sanctuary policies that release criminal aliens with immigration detainers will now be subject to the “stiffest penalties in America.” He also rebutted the hype and fear mongering being spread by some legislators, liberal chiefs of police, sheriffs, and media outlets.

Abbott’s comments came during an exclusive interview with Breitbart Texas immediately following his signing of the historic bill that effectively outlaws sanctuary jurisdictions in the Lone Star State. The new law creates civil and criminal penalties for those who refuse to cooperate with immigration officials and provides for jail time for a sheriff or police chief who releases a criminal alien subject to an immigration detainer. He also took the opportunity to counter the claims that this is a “show me your papers” law and is somehow unconstitutional.

Democrat legislators and left-of-center Texas news outlets claims about the constitutionality of a provision in the law allowing police officers to inquire about the immigration status of someone they have detained drew pointed criticism from the governor. In an article published April 29 in the Dallas Morning News, State Representative Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) said SB4 is unconstitutional because states are pre-empted by federal law in the area of immigration and are not permitted to conduct their own investigation. “The Supreme Court struck down most of the provisions of the Arizona immigration law on this basis.”

Abbott told Breitbart Texas this article “directly misstated what the legal status of this law was out of the U.S. Supreme Court – in the Arizona decision.”

“The so-called controversial part of this law is what some label as the “show your papers” component,” the Texas governor explained. “And what everyone seems to get wrong is they think that that provision was stricken down in the Arizona law. To the contrary, the provision in the Arizona law is stricter than the Texas law. The Arizona law required that law enforcement ASK for papers. The Texas law does not require it, it allows it so there is that one difference.”

“But despite that difference, the Arizona law was upheld by every U.S. Supreme Court justice, including the liberals,” he said emphatically. “The so-called controversial part of this law has been ruled on by the U.S. Supreme Court and upheld,” the governor emphasized.

Abbott reassured American citizens living in Texas this bill does nothing to change their daily lives. “For American citizens, this bill has no impact on them whatsoever, and they have absolutely nothing to be concerned about,” Abbott reassured. “There’s only one group of people that is targeted by this legislation and that is people who are in this country illegally, who have committed violent crimes, and are subject to an ICE detainer request.”

“No one has to do anything different from the way they’ve been operating their lives before this law was signed,” he said referring to a situation where someone is stopped for a traffic violation, ”because it poses no danger, no challenge, no difficulty, for any American citizen.”

The law’s author, Senator Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), said police can already inquire about the immigration status of a person they detain, during a Q&A on the Senate Floor during final passage of the bill. He said this bill doesn’t change anything in this regard and citizens and legal residents do not need “carry papers” to prove they are here legally.

The new law does pose a threat to law enforcement officials who choose to ignore detainer requests on illegal immigrants in their jails from immigration officials.

“All law enforcement officers are going to be required to follow this law,” the governor stated. “If they refuse to follow this law, or if they adopt sanctuary city policies, they are subject now to the stiffest penalties in America for adopting sanctuary city policies – which includes jail time where sheriffs could wind up in the same jail they may be releasing inmates from who are the subject of ICE detainer requests.”

“But these officials also are subject to a removal action,” he advised, “and the counties or cities in which they operate are subject to very stiff fines.” The governor said these fines can go up to $25,000 per day. The law makes ignoring an immigration detainer a Class A misdemeanor, Breitbart Texas reported.

Referring to Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez and Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who have either ignored or threatened to ignore immigration detainers, Abbott said they must come into compliance with the law. “If they don’t change their policies, if they continue to handle detainers on a case-by-case basis that means they will be in violation of this law and subject to its penalties,” he said firmly.

Governor Abbott explained that he believes this law will make Texas a safer place and help avoid tragedies like what happened in the sanctuary city of San Francisco with the murder of Kate Steinle by a previously deported illegal alien released from the local jail.

“This law makes Texans safer because it prevents the types of policies that California has that lead to the tragic murder of Kate Steinle. It prevents the types of policies that were adopted by the Travis County sheriff who had policies that release back out on the street, people who are either accused of, or even convicted of, very dangerous crimes and so Texas is going to be a safer place by ensuring that law enforcement will work with federal officials to ensure that we keep behind bars, and remove from this country, those who pose a danger to our fellow Americans.”

The new sanctuary city law goes into effect September 1, 2017.

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...exas-governor/