Trump nominates son of Dan Patrick for U.S. attorney job
President Donald Trump on Wednesday nominated Ryan Patrick, son of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to be the chief federal prosecutor for the region stretching from Houston to the Texas-Mexico border.
Ryan Patrick, a Republican, was a state district judge in Houston from 2012-16, losing his re-election bid as Democrats surged in the 2016 Harris County election. He has since been working as a criminal defense lawyer in Houston.
Patrick, who received his law degree from the South Texas College of Law in 2006, also spent six years as a prosecutor in the Harris County district attorney’s office.
His appointment as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
“Jan and I are obviously very proud of our son Ryan,” said Dan Patrick, who was Trump’s campaign chairman in Texas. “The selection process was extremely competitive and involved a series of interviews and reviews over the past six months. His record as a prosecutor and criminal court judge make him uniquely qualified for this position.” out it rogue cities, counties and college police departments could create policies that would allow the release of dangerous unauthorized criminal immigrants onto Texas streets.
Under the new law, residents of a city or county or employees of a university can file a complaint with the attorney general’s office if they believe officials are blocking cooperation with federal immigration authorities. If the state finds the complaint valid, the attorney general can order the jurisdiction to comply with the law. If its officials fail to comply, they can face monetary fees or even removal from office.
But none of the informal complaints filed to date with the attorney general have given rise to an investigation. The three complaints sent within the first two weeks of the limited implementation of the law were generated from email or phone calls. None were filed through the state’s official system.
Leoni, the woman who wanted Haltom City investigated, emailed the attorney general’s constituent affairs division after a traffic collision with a woman who did not speak English. Leoni said she believed the woman was in the country illegally.
“Why do the ILLEGALS get a free pass?” she wrote in her email to the attorney general’s office. “They have put the ILLEGALS above U.S. Citizens and practice unequal application of the LAW.”
Leoni, who was unaware her email wasn’t filed as an official complaint, said she was disappointed that she hadn’t heard back from the state. “It would have been nice to be informed. If they’re only looking at it for a few days that tells me it’s not a very serious investigation,” she said.
Another man emailed the attorney general’s office to say he had seen a TV report about city and county officials in San Antonio telling people how to circumvent the sanctuary cities ban.
“The proposed pilot program is essentially a scam/ sham program to circumvent the spirit and intent of the law as it has recently been re-adjudicated by the 5th U.S. District Appeals Court,” he wrote. “You MUST obtain a copy of these three ‘leaders’ (County Judge Nelson Wolff, City Attorney Nico LaHood, and Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar) announcing the program on the TV news.”
A third informal complaint was a rambling accusation from a Pasadena resident, who told the attorney general’s office that a church was employing an unauthorized immigrant.
Asked if he had filed a complaint about the church employee under the state’s anti-sanctuary cities policy, Lauro Castro replied that he had never heard of sanctuary cities. “I was just trying to get a hold of them and let them know,” Castro said. “I don’t think it’s legal for the church to pay him.”
Democrats, who argued that the law discriminated against Hispanics, said the lack of complaints proves that sanctuary cities aren’t the menacing problem Republicans made them out to be.
“Everybody said for a long time that there are no sanctuary cities in Texas and the Republican Party refused to actually look at the facts, actually listen to law enforcement officials and understand the way the process works,” said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.
But Republicans say the lack of complaints proves that the new law forced local jurisdictions to end their sanctuary policies. And they aren’t surprised by the absence of complaints because most local officials were already following the law, they said.
“The fact that so few complaints have arisen is a testament that the law appears to be working, not a question of if it was needed. The press narrative and fear-mongering by critics is, unsurprisingly, proving very different from reality,” said Ciara Matthews, a spokeswoman for Gov. Greg Abbott.