U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is pushing to crack down on cities that restrict native police cooperation with federal immigration officers, the most recent GOP response to Houston’s new ICE coverage.
The Texas Republican filed laws Thursday to strip some federal funding from so-called “sanctuary” cities, permit states to sue cities and counties that don’t cooperate with ICE and bar states from prosecuting native police who assist with immigration enforcement.
It’s a beefed-up model of a invoice Cornyn led in 2016 that drew 53 votes within the Senate, however fell shy of the brink wanted to go. Republicans within the Senate nonetheless would not have the numbers to beat a possible Democratic filibuster.
Texas lawmakers handed a regulation in 2017 requiring native police to cooperate with federal immigration officers. Still, some cities throughout the state have sought to handle how a lot native police work together with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to President Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive.
Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened to strip $110 million in grants from Houston after town council final week voted to scrap a policy that requires officers to attend half-hour for ICE officers to choose up somebody with a civil immigration warrant. The metropolis’s new coverage additionally requires the division to make stories to the council about its cooperation with ICE.
A spokesman for the governor stated this week that his workplace can also be investigating different cities, however didn’t specify which of them.
In March, Austin moved to bar native police from arresting or detaining somebody simply because ICE has issued a noncriminal warrant for his or her arrest. That coverage additionally requires officers to get supervisor approval earlier than ready for ICE to reach and detain a person.
San Antonio, in the meantime, has began reporting ICE requests for police help and associated prices, however has not gone as far as to restrict cooperation.
Cornyn is locked in a heated major runoff towards Attorney General Ken Paxton whose workplace can also be investigating Houston and Austin over their ICE insurance policies.
