Texas governor threatens to withhold funding from 'sanctuary' communties
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott continues to crack down on local governments offering any form of sanctuary to undocumented immigrants.
On Wednesday, Governor Abbott said that local police departments that don鈥檛 cooperate fully with the United States immigration authorities could lose funding. The announcement comes in response to criticism that local governments are allowing and aiding illegal immigrants.
鈥淏eginning now, all [criminal justice division] grant awards will require that sheriff鈥檚 departments fully honor [US Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention requests for criminal immigrants," Abbott wrote in a . "Any applicant that cannot certify that their office will honor all ICE detainers for criminal immigrants will be ineligible for CJD funding."
Federal detainers request county jails to hold undocumented immigrants so federal authorities can take them into custody. Detainers are not required and can only be used to hold those with criminal records for no more than 48 hours past set release.
But now, Abbott鈥檚 announcement makes abiding by detainers practically mandatory 鈥� that is, unless sheriffs are willing to forego the grants that 鈥減rovide for a range of resources, including drug courts, juvenile justice programs and body cameras,鈥� reports The Texas Tribune. This year alone, Abbott鈥檚 office has given out $4 million in grants, $78,000 of which has gone to Sheriff Lupe Valdez鈥檚 Dallas County.
Ms. Valdez has come under scrutiny lately after she stated she 鈥渨ould begin making case-by-case decisions on whether to honor federal detainers for inmates.鈥� Abbott denounced this decision saying it would pose a 鈥� to Texans.鈥�
Valdez maintains the Dallas County police department has not denied any ICE detainer requests this year, and in fact last week Valdez and Dallas County faced a lawsuit from 16 immigrants that alleged pretrial detention and claimed 鈥淒allas County and the sheriff held immigrants , and in some cases up to three months,鈥� reported Dallas News.
Across the country, people are responding to Abbott鈥檚 announcement. Lawyer Chris Newman, who works with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in Los Angeles told Dallas News, 鈥淚t hardly makes sense to deprive law enforcement agencies of resources in order to make a political point about immigrants. But thankfully the US Constitution categorically prohibits the 鈥榓rrest first, investigate later鈥� approach favored by the governor.鈥�
