Posted on 04/10/2022 6:19:31 AM PDT by T Ruth
San Antonio must pay $300,000 to settle a pair of lawsuits brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleging the city violated the state’s controversial ban on so-called sanctuary cities in 2017 and prevented federal authorities from enforcing immigration law.
Paxton had sued the city over a December 2017 incident in which San Antonio police found a dozen undocumented immigrants in a tractor-trailer and released them without turning them over to federal immigration authorities — in apparent violation of Senate Bill 4, a 2017 law that outlawed “sanctuary cities” by requiring local police to cooperate with those authorities.
In one of the lawsuits, Paxton sought to oust San Antonio Police Chief William McManus over the incident.
Under a settlement agreement approved by the San Antonio City Council on Thursday, McManus will keep his job while the city pays $300,000 to end the two lawsuits without admitting fault.
“It is time for cities like San Antonio to wake up and realize their misguided approach to immigration is not only reckless, but it has also made the influx of dangerous narcotics and human trafficking much worse,” Paxton said in a statement. “I have fought relentlessly to secure our border and I will continue to take essential steps to protecting every city in our great state.”
San Antonio officials said Thursday that they believe they would have won at trial, but they risked a $150 million penalty if the state won. San Antonio already had racked up a $6.3 million tab defending itself in the two suits.
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(Excerpt) Read more at texastribune.org ...
Why aren’t the criminal politicians/bureaucrats going to jail for breaking the law rather than having the taxpayers of San Antonio pay a fine?
IT MATTERS who you vote for.
RECALLS need to become a more useful tool.
A weak settlement for the plaintiff. Increase the violations penalty, and the offending cities will lose leverage.
Police chiefs. Mayors. Scumbag city attorneys. Embarrass them and let them know there are consequences.
It might already be too late since that's how we roll anyway. Asleep at the wheel and then awaken after the bus has rolled off the cliff, but something is better than nothing.
I think that is how it is in many cities, the chief is usually a politician and doesn’t answer to the people.
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