TEXAS GOVERNOR STRIPS STATE GRANT FUNDING FROM SANCTUARY CITY SHERIFFS

by BOB PRICE
4 Nov 2015

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a new plan to strip state grant funding from county sheriff’s with a Sanctuary City policy of not honoring ICE detainers. The move follows Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s order that criminal illegal aliens in her jail will be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine if ICE detainers will be enforced.

“I am establishing new standards for Sheriff’s Departments that seek grants from the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division (CJD),” Governor Abbott wrote in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “Beginning now, all CJD grant awards will require that Sheriff’s Departments fully honor ICE’s detention requests for criminal immigrants. Any applicant that cannot certify that their office will honor all ICE detainers for criminal immigrants will be ineligible for CJD funding. Further, any applicant that certifies full compliance with ICE detainer requests—but subsequently fails to honor an ICE detainer—will be subject to claw-back provisions and must refund the full amount of their CJD grant award.”

The governor pointed out that ICE has been weakening its own standards about when they will issue detainers under the new Priority Enforcement Program enacted this year by the Department of Homeland Security. Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby reviewed this program in a January, 2015 article. Darby called the program “Catch and Release 2.0.”

“Given this weakened standard, it is particularly imperative that Texas [s]heriffs fully participate with ICE’s detainer program so that every single federal detainer request for a criminal immigrant is honored,” the governor wrote. “More broadly, it is vitally important that Sheriffs lead by example and enforce the rule of law.”

On October 26th, Abbott announced that Sanctuary City policies in Texas will “no longer be tolerated.” This action revoking funds shows immediate action by the governor who has also suggested new legislation to be considered by the 2017 Legislative Session. Among the suggestions by Abbott was modification of the Tort Claims Act to hold counties “fully financially responsible for the actions of any illegal immigrants who are released because the county’s Sheriff failed to honor an ICE detainer request.” He also suggested new laws making it illegal for a Texas sheriff to ignore an ICE detainer.

These actions follow Dallas County Sheriff Valdez’s order to scale back on honoring ICE detentions.

Abbott concluded his letter by stating, “[a]s Governor, I simply will not allow CJD grant funding administered by this office to support law enforcement agencies that refuse to cooperate with a federal law enforcement program that is intended to keep dangerous criminals off Texas streets.”

http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2015/...vernor-abbott/

This is wonderful news! Let's make tomorrow's activism alert all about Texas!

W

Texas rocks!

There is supposed to be no option to deportation when a crime of moral turpitude or an aggravated felony is involved. This is quite a lot broader than the idea that localities can "opt" to only deport "violent" felons. If the crime is a felony under EITHER state or federal law, it can fall into the category of aggravated felony. And crimes of moral turpitude---including various types of fraud----are automatic deportations. In other words if a US citizen could end up with a prison record, the same standards apply to immigrants----and they don't get the option of staying in the US.

There is supposed to be no option except deportation and strict limitations affecting future status as well. Localities are not supposed to have the option to beg out of this obligation.

Texas governor says he'll deny 'sanctuary cities' some funds

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott dealt his first fiscal threat Wednesday to "sanctuary cities" by making a $250 million array of criminal justice grants off-limits to counties that don't

fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

The new restrictions mirror a failed effort by Republicans in Congress last month to block money to jurisdictions that don't share immigration information or honor federal detention requests.

The White House had threatened a veto and Democrats criticized the proposal as anti-immigrant.

Abbott, a Republican who frustrated conservative activists by not pushing get-tough immigration measures earlier in his term, is now implementing the idea on a smaller scale in Texas.

But any withheld dollars may be minimal.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez provoked the change after recently announcing that the nation's seventh-largest jail may no longer honor all federal requests to keep certain immigrant suspects in extended custody.

Even so, Dallas County has yet to turn down one of nearly 1,500 requests so far this year, spokesman Raul Reyna said.

Other big county jails in Austin, which is also overseen by an elected Democratic sheriff, and San Antonio say they grant all detainer requests.

Abbott said counties applying for criminal justice grants controlled by his office must now certify that federal detention requests will be honored.

Dallas County has received about $78,000 so far this year, a fraction of the $146 million sheriff's office budget.

"As governor, I simply will not allow (criminal justice) grant funding administered by this office to support law enforcement agencies that refuse to cooperate with a federal law enforcement

program that is intended to keep dangerous criminals off Texas streets," Abbott wrote in a letter.

A detainer request is when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has access to fingerprint data taken at bookings, asks jails to hold immigrants for up to 48 hours, giving its agents

time to decide whether to take the person into federal custody and pursue deportation.

Congressional Republicans had introduced their legislation after a Mexican national in the country illegally was charged in the fatal shooting of a San Francisco woman this summer.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco sheriff who vigorously defended the city's sanctuary policies lost his bid for re-election by a 2-to-1 margin.

Valdez has said her jail may no longer honor detainer requests if the people are suspected of minor crimes. Reyna declined comment on Abbott's directive, citing a lawsuit filed against the sheriff's

office last week by people who say they were detained for unconstitutionally long periods.

The lawsuit was filed the same day Abbott sent a letter publicly embracing "sanctuary cities" crackdowns that Republicans have tried and failed to pass in Texas since 2011. Abbott until then had

mostly deflected questions about whether he supported such proposals.

Matt Simpson, senior policy strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said Texas county jails routinely comply with the requests.

"I'm not sure Texas has any sanctuary cities," he said.

Texas governor says he'll deny 'sanctuary cities' some funds