Abbott: Sanctuary Cities Will ‘No Longer Be Tolerated’ in Texas

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez attempted to straddle the immigration fence with her recent declaration that her department – which runs the county jail – would no longer comply automatically with federal hold requests.

Abbott was referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency’s “federal detainer program, which is created to prevent risky criminals from being released into communities”.

Abbott revealed his respect for Obama and the president’s immigration policies during a radio conversation with Sean Hannity where the two talked about the governor’s plan to end sanctuary city policies in Texas.

Kate Steinle was brutally murdered last summer in San Francisco by an undocumented immigrant who was released by a local sheriff who refused to honor ICE’s detainer request.

Local stories from the KERA Newsroom.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R.) has written a letter opposing the Sheriff of Dallas’ decision not to fully honor the requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain criminal immigrants, saying the practice poses a “serious danger” to the people of Texas.

“Sanctuary City’ laws, which are usually the result of local politicians pandering to open borders pressure groups, forbid local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials in arresting or deporting illegal immigrants, even criminal illegals”.

Gov. Greg Abbott promised as much in warning Valdez to rethink her position. That’s where the sanctuary city debate blew up into a major issue when an illegal immigrant with several felony convictions and at least five previous deportations was accused of killing a young woman on a pier.

The governor laid out actions he and the state of Texas could take in response to the renegade actions of this sheriff.

Republicans have proposed “sanctuary cities” laws since 2011 but have repeatedly failed despite an overwhelming conservative majority.

Asked if Texas had any sanctuary cities, Abbott didn’t answer directly.

The Dallas County policy change took effect September 1 and is done on a case-by-case basis.

“No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset”, Valdez told Dallas Morning News reporters.

During the fiscal year of 2015, there were 2,048 hold requests; there were no statistics available on how many of those requests were rejected.

The Dallas director of the liberal activist group Texas Organizing Project, Brianna Brown, said the change “strengthened trust and safety” in the community. “Instead, the laws of this land are going to be enforced”.

Officials there have “long recognized that they do not have the resources, the prosecutors, the immigration courts, the space in detention centers to detain and place in deportation proceedings every illegal immigrant arrested for speeding, driving without a seat belt, or changing lanes without using a turn signal”, Dubove said.