There may be a prison cell in the future of Austin, Texas Sheriff Sally Hernandez. She is the sheriff who refuses to hand illegal aliens over to ICE. She has never honored a single detainer from the feds.
But the usual cast of activists went to court trying to get the law Texas passed last year making sanctuary cities in Texas illegal. The law contains language that would give the governor the right to remove violators from office and make them possibly face criminal charges. A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found the Texas law valid with one exception.
There was a clause that prohibited local officials from endorsing policies that favor pro-illegal policies. They can object but the court said they still have to follow the Texas law. Everyone who is arrested must have their status confirmed and they must honor all detainers. This will not sit well with the cities of Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas.
It will be interesting to see if they continue to follow sanctuary policies they’ve enforced in the past.
Right now, an appeal is unlikely at least until the next session of the Supreme Court. The best they can hope for is that the court issues a temporary restraining order until they can review the case. That’s unlikely.
It would take five votes to issue the restraining order and five justices follow the constitution.
The ruling comes a week after the U.S. Justice Department – which had joined Texas in defending the law known as Senate Bill 4 – sued California over state laws aimed at protecting immigrants.
“Dangerous criminals shouldn’t be allowed back into our communities to possibly commit more crimes,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in response to the decision.
Leading the lawsuit were Texas’ largest cities- including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin – in a state where the Hispanic population has grown at a pace three times that of white residents since 2010.
This ruling does not bode well for California that’s being sued by Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice. California passed a series of laws that in essence make the entire state a sanctuary for illegal aliens. Those laws directly conflict with federal law.
I got a feeling it’s about to become really fun to see what happens next.