Topic: way to go Greg Abbott!... no "sanctuary cities" in Texas
mightymoe's photo
Wed 10/28/15 11:00 AM
Edited by mightymoe on Wed 10/28/15 11:01 AM
Texas Governor Greg Abbott admonished Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez over her recent decision to consider honoring immigration detainers on a "case-by-case" basis. The governor said sanctuary city policies like this will "no longer be tolerated in Texas."

Governor Abbott wrote the tersely worded letter to Sheriff Valdez after her decision to scale back on honoring immigration detainers sent to her jail by the federal government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Her announcement was reported by Breitbart Texas on October 12.

"'Sanctuary City' policies like those promoted by your recent decision to implement your own case-by-case immigrant detention plan will no longer be tolerated in Texas," Abbott began in his letter attached below. "Your decision to not fully honor U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement's (ICE) requests to detain criminal immigrants poses a serious danger to Texans. These detainers provide ICE with the critical notice and time it needs to take incarcerated immigrants into federal custody."

"Your refusal to fully participate in a federal law enforcement program intended to keep dangerous criminals off the streets leaves the State no choice but to take whatever actions are necessary to protect our fellow Texans," Abbott continued. "Now more than ever, it is essential that state, federal, and local law enforcement work collaboratively to protect our fellow Texans and to ensure that our laws are upheld, not disregarded."

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

Passing laws that prohibit any policy or action that promotes sanctuary to people in this state illegally.
Enacting laws that make it illegal for a Sheriff's Department to not honor a federal immigration detainer request.
Evaluating the extent to which local taxpayers should foot the bill for local decisions that increase costs for Texas' health and education systems.

Amending the Tort Claims Act to ensure counties are 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.
Valdez says her new policy applies only to those who have committed minor offenses. She issued an order that these inmates not be held the additional 48 hours for ICE officials as has been done in the past, as reported by Breitbart Texas.

"No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset," Valdez told Dallas Morning News reporters. "We can't base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole." She did not elaborate on how releasing criminal illegal aliens into the community before ICE is able to determine if there is grounds for detention or deportation makes her community safer.

Lopez said that instead of looking at felonies vs. misdemeanors, she would instead base her decisions on a case-by-case basis.

"Now more than ever," Abbott concluded in his letter, "it is essential that state, federal, and local law enforcement work collaboratively to protect our fellow Texans and to ensure that our laws are upheld, not disregarded."

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.

no photo
Wed 10/28/15 11:17 AM
Edited by SassyEuro2 on Wed 10/28/15 11:17 AM
It is about time, States start standing up for themselves & act & function like the individual states they are.

Little Texas- God Bless Texas (with lyrics): http://youtu.be/hw_f7eIjjFk/ :banana:


mightymoe's photo
Wed 10/28/15 11:22 AM
"No matter what we do, someone is going to get upset," Valdez told Dallas Morning News reporters. "We can't base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole." She did not elaborate on how releasing criminal illegal aliens into the community before ICE is able to determine if there is grounds for detention or deportation makes her community safer.


if thats the case, why not follow the laws then? another liberal that does what she wants, not what the law says to do...

no photo
Thu 10/29/15 12:10 PM
"We can't base our decisions on who is going to get upset with us. We have to base our decisions on what is best for the whole."

Follow the LAW. It's not her to decide.grumble

no photo
Thu 10/29/15 01:05 PM
She did not elaborate on how releasing criminal illegal aliens into the community before ICE is able to determine if there is grounds for detention or deportation makes her community safer.

IMO this is somewhat disingenuous.

Simply because many many many, loathe to say most to all, times ICE doesn't even attempt to "determine if there is ground for detention or deportation."

ICE just doesn't show up.
ICE doesn't do it's job.

And when people say "why are we letting hundreds, to thousands of illegals in jail go free, in the country! They're criminals!"
ICE just says something like "not our fault, we don't have the manpower or resources to handle every single minor infraction done by an immigrant. We spend what resources we have in going after more serious offenders. Like coyote's, drug smugglers and cartels, gun runners and cartels, human and child trafficking rings, terrorists."

When tons of illegals get stuck in prison for an extra 48 hours, constantly, the money to do so adds up pretty quickly.

If you know ICE isn't going to come, isn't going to do their job, can't do that job, what's the point in keeping illegals in jail for another 48 hours and incurring the costs.
Principle?

Follow the LAW. It's not her to decide

The only time this actually works is if everyone follows the law.
Especially those whose job it is to do so.
When you have people running the federal government, constantly in the limelight, with their lives and actions under constant scrutiny, not following the law, not to mention so many agencies like the NSA, IRS, not following the law, how can you expect city, state, county officials to do so?

Rock's photo
Thu 10/29/15 03:42 PM
�No Tejas? tears


BigSky1970's photo
Sun 11/01/15 10:56 PM
Gotta hand it to you Texans, but I like your governor.