Two amendments were proposed and accepted Tuesday to add further teeth to Senate Bill 4, which would roll out a series of measures designed to eliminate so-called sanctuary cities in Texas.
The amendments equip the bill with additional punishments to inflict upon Texas jurisdictions not complying with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer requests.
One of the amendments would make what bill sponsor, Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, called the "head person"—a sheriff, for example—at the noncompliant jurisdiction subject to Class A misdemeanor charges. If found guilty, the person could face a year in prison and up to $4,000 in fines.
This provision seems to actualize Gov. Greg Abbott's threats to remove noncompliant public officials from office. If passed, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez would be subject to this ruling and would likely be removed from office, calling for a special election.
Another amendment would inflict civil penalties of $1,000 for the first offense and $25,000 for subsequent offenses of noncompliant jurisdictions. This would cost the Travis County Sheriff's office additional funds per day.
This financial penalty is in addition to what would already be enforced within the main text of the bill. If a jurisdiction refuses to comply with ICE detainer requests, they will no longer be eligible to receive state grant funds. Under the bill, the state comptroller would enforce this policy among all state agencies issuing grants to state jurisdictions.
Posted Feb. 7 at 4:27 p.m.
Following Gov. Greg Abbott's decision last week to withhold state grant monies from Travis County in retribution for its sheriff's immigration policies, the county is beginning a "rebudgeting" process to address the $1.5 million shortfall.
The governor announced Feb. 1 his office was cutting Travis County off from 12 grants that fund 18.5 full-time positions in seven county offices and departments.
"None of [these grants have] anything to do with immigration or [are] under the managerial control of the sheriff's department," County Judge Sarah Eckhardt said. "We have had $1.5 million cut from programming this year. We face a probable $1.8 million cut next year."
Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt[/caption]The funds support such county justice programs as its drug courts, family violence prosecution and victim outreach, veterans court, prostitution prevention, adult probation in connection with driving while intoxicated, the leadership academy in the juvenile probation department, youth substance abuse and drug diversion court.
According to county staff, approximately 5,000 people are served by these grants. Travis County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to continue funding the programs, which likely means a drawdown from the county's general fund.
There are 4.5 full-time positions funded by the grants that have not been filled. Instead of hiring personnel for those open positions, the posts will be eliminated.
The county will assess the extent to which it can absorb these costs during a three-month rebudgeting process for the affected offices and departments.
"To continue these programs probably means dipping into our reserves," Eckhardt said.
Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who was elected in November, promised during her campaign to halt cooperation on immigration detainers, wherein Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials request another law enforcement agency to hold a suspected undocumented individual in custody for an additional 48 hours—upon which ICE assumes custody of the suspect.
Abbott has made it a priority during the current legislative session to ban so-called sanctuary cities in Texas. Senate Bill 4 aims to do that by penalizing local government entities whose law enforcement officials do not cooperate with federal immigration investigations.
