Austin Becomes Ground Zero For Sanctuary City Battle As Texas Governor Vows To Cut State Funding

Zero Hedge ^ | 01/25/2017 | Tyler Durden

[SeekAndFind]

Late last week, according to the Austin American- Statesman, the newly elected sheriff of Travis County, Texas, Sally Hernandez, vowed to limit cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials saying that she would only honor immigration holds for suspects booked into the Travis County Jail on charges of capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and "continuous smuggling of persons".

Traditionally, the county has honored nearly all requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold a suspect booked into jail when agents have wanted to investigate their status further.

 

However, effective Feb. 1, sheriff's officials will honor so-called immigration holds or "detainers" placed by federal authorities only when a suspect is booked into the Travis County Jail on charges of capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and "continuous smuggling of persons."

 

Otherwise, federal agents must have a court order or arrest warrant signed by a judge for the jail to continue housing a person whose immigration status is in question, according to Hernandez's policy, which she released Friday.

 

"The public must be confident that local law enforcement is focused on local public safety, not on federal immigration enforcement. Our jail cannot be perceived as a holding tank for ICE or that Travis County deputies are ICE officers," Hernandez said in a video announcement.

 

Of course, the declaration from Hernandez drew an immediate reaction from Texas Governor Greg Abbott who promptly promised to cut state funding for the rogue Travis County and take steps to enact "stiffer penalties" as well.

The Governor's Office will cut funding for Travis County adopting sanctuary policies. Stiffer penalties coming. https://t.co/yYxeXql3xL

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) January 20, 2017

 

According to Vocativ, the Travis County Police Department receives $1.8 million in annual grants from the state of Texas.  That said, at roughly 1% of their overall police budget, we suspect the the funding shortfall won't be a sufficient deterrent for Travis County's defiant new Sheriff.

Abbott, a Republican, has threatened to withhold nearly $1.8 million in state law-enforcement grants following Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez’s decision to buck state law and no longer honor all jail detainers sought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A detainer is a request to state and local jails to notify federal agents when they are about to release an undocumented immigrant from custody.

 

“This is not a pronouncement of sound public policy; it is a dangerous game of political Russian roulette — with the lives of Texans at stake,” Abbott wrote in a letter to Hernandez on Monday. “Unless you reverse your policy… your unilateral decision will cost the people of Travis County money that was meant to be used to protect them.”

Of course, Trump also repeatedly vowed during his campaign to cut federal funding for sanctuary cities, a move that he is expected to officially confirm later today, along with a series of other national security initiatives, during a visit to the Department of Homeland Security.

Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017

 

With that, it seems the time has come for many of America's liberal cities to: (a) get used to policing their streets with smaller budgets or (b) actually start enforcing laws.

[Angels27]

Boy, it’s like night and day between today and this day eight years ago!

Eight years ago we were opening our doors wider to illegals and giving all kinds of entitlements. Now we are shutting the door!

[BradtotheBone]

So how much of the Austin’s police budget comes from the federal government?

[Steely Tom]

He better watch out, or the Travis County DA will indict him for obstruction of justice and interference with a law enforcement official, on the grounds that cutting the budget of Austin means cutting the budget for law enforcement in Austin.

[allendale]

Get it done ,Johnny Reb.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Sanctuary cities should be sue-able for the damage they cause to others. Kate Steinle? SF should pay.

When an illegal, who has been detained and is released by local or state officials, causes injury or damages, the releasing authority should pay the injured citizen.

At some point, the taxpayers voting for this crap will notice how much it costs them.

Remember, liberals are big on telling everyone what to do, but are very small on actually bearing the costs. They love cost shifting. They are hypocrites.

If the costs they imposed on the rest of us bounced back to them, they’d modify their behavior post-haste.

[grobdriver]

saying that she would only honor immigration holds for suspects booked into the Travis County Jail on charges of capital murder, aggravated sexual assault and "continuous smuggling of persons".

Another leftist picking and choosing when they will uphold the law, and when they will ignore it based on their own beliefs.

[txhurl]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3517380/posts

Earlier thread on this. I’m noticing not a lot of RAT screaming about this.. probably because illegals are no longer helpful for/with vote fraud and now are pure liability.

Also, it’s more likely to be RAT businesses profiting from illegals, and if they don’t de-sanctuary they’ll lose their incomes.

[sockmonkey]

APD, and TCSO are separate entities.

[MrEdd]

You will have to do better Abbot.
It is Time for Texas to join the Southwest in reforming civil forfeiture.

No conviction, no property seizure.

That will cripple Austin.

[RC one]

cut off fending then send in troops if they still don’t take the hint.

[Lurkinanloomin]

Also, it’s more likely to be RAT businesses profiting from illegals

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I doubt that is true considering the stance of McCain, Graham, Rubio, Corker, Murkowsky, Heller, Hoeven, Hatch, Alexander and Flake, plus dozens of House members including the Speaker.

[drunknsage]

The Right would NEVER do such a thing....

Until they do. Let me demonstrate. In the State of Texas it is a felony to interfere with custody of a child. A felony.... This clear RULE OF LAW goes unenforced in almost every city and county across the state. Abbott knows all about this and his solution is to throw a little bit of money at a few cities and go back to business as usual.

So dont kid yourself into believing that this move is anything other than virtue signaling from a man who claims to value families yet doesn’t in practice. If Abbott can go to such lengths to enforce this law because its part of his principles, how about the rest? How about those family values?

The reality is, selective enforcement is part of Governing and Law Enforcement. Not every law can be enforced 100% of the time and leadership is free to pursue the ones they support. This is the reality that thousands of Texas non custodial parents must face daily and this is the reason given to them why potential State Felons are allowed to violate the law. Im all for solving immigration and stoping sanctuary cities, but i find the actions of the Governer to be hypocritical. If his office can practice selective enforcement and discretion, so can everyone else.

[AustinBill]

The "withhold funding" is the carrot part of the inducement to change behavior. What will follow is the "stick" part of arresting and prosecuting city officials who refuse to cooperate with or actively attempt to obstruct the enforcement of Federal law. Trump will have no problem making a very public example or two and that should be all that's needed to end this sort of talk once and for all.

The fact that Abbott is on board with this just makes enforcement that much easier, but immigration policy is and has always been an area of Federal jurisdiction.

[Sam Gamgee]

I have always been confused about the Texan take on illegal immigrants. It seems, at least 50 years ago, that Texans tolerated it and even encouraged it, needing the workers on their farms. Many in the dry lands of Texas even hid their workers from federal agents.

[Newtoidaho]

Accessory to many crimes is a jail-able offense, let’s change Federal law to put bureaucrats who shield illegal aliens in prison.

[TalBlack]

Let me get this straight: A politician BRAZENLY breaks the law and the response is we’re gonna withhold tax mony? What did the taxpayers do to deserve this? PUT THE LAW BREAKER INTO JAIL!!!!!!

[From The Deer Stand]

Sheriff Hernandez ..... hmmmmm. Wonder what her ancestry is?

[Starboard]

With that, it seems the time has come for many of America’s liberal cities to: (a) get used to policing their streets with smaller budgets or (b) actually start enforcing laws.

****************

After the funding to the sanctuary cities is cut, let’s see how the taxpayers in these outlaw cities like seeing THEIR essential services cut back in favor of paying for illegals. The political pressure is going to ratchet up big time.

[ziravan]

Texas doesn’t have to cut funding to sanctuary cities. Counties and cities in Texas are wholly subservient units of the state gov’t.

The state can, by decree, override the ordinances and laws of any city in Texas.

The real problem, of course, is Republicans controls 2/3rds of the Texas House, which is still headed by Speaker Joe Straus, first elected Speaker by 8 Republicans and 142 Democrats.

Speaker Straus has refused, session after session, to bring up sanctuary cities, just as he does with pro-life legislation.

The real power of the Texas Governor is to call special sessions of the legislature for specific issues. This has been how pro-life legislation gets passed in Texas and while Straus is Speaker, the only way sanctuary city legislation will move forward.