DA doesn’t expect big impact from SB 4
El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks says concerns about Texas’ Senate Bill 4 immigration law, if courts uphold it, are overblown, and he doesn’t expect the controversial law to have a huge impact on the El Paso and West Texas border.
Any arrests made would be adjudicated using “prosecutorial discretion,” Hicks said.
“The concerns that have been expressed over (SB 4) cases in my jurisdiction in the 34th Judicial District, I honestly believe, are very overblown,” he said during a news conference Friday. “I do not anticipate seeing very many of these cases.”
Hicks, whose district encompasses El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties, has talked to law enforcement in all three counties to discuss how his office will prosecute case involving arrests made under SB 4 – which would give state and local law enforcement officers broad authority to arrest and detain anyone suspected of entering the country illegally.
“I do not believe that we will see very many of these cases, if any, here in El Paso County,” Hicks said. “After talking with the sheriffs in Hudspeth and Culberson counties, I don’t believe we’re going to see very many of these cases, if any, in either of those two counties.
“That’s just not the way our law enforcement is structured. That’s not the way our law enforcement is set up. We just do not see very many cases of people coming across the border into Texas in this type of situation, and we just don’t see an appetite from our law enforcement to try to enforce aspects of this law,” he said.
El Paso County and two immigrant rights organizations – El Paso-based Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center and Austin-based American Gateways – filed a lawsuit to stop SB 4 late last year. A month later, the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit against SB 4 as well. The lawsuits have been combined.
Implementation of the immigration law is on hold in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It is unclear when a ruling might be issued.
If the law goes into effect, Hick said he will use “prosecutorial discretion” on which cases his office will pursue.
“The law is the law, and it has to be enforced,” Hicks said. “Once an arrest is made, only at that point can I then exercise prosecutorial discretion on a caseby-case basis for what we will or will not actually prosecute . ... I cannot control a law enforcement agency. So any law enforcement agency has the ability to develop probable cause and make an arrest. “That being said, my office has the ultimate say-so on what cases are going to be prosecuted in Hudspeth, El Paso and Culberson counties.”
Under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers have aggressively pursued migrants at the border.
Opponents of the law and even some El Paso law enforcement officials have warned that a large number of migrant arrests could overwhelm county jail space.
Others worry that the new law will lead to racial profiling.
Cases in which the migrants were racially profiled or had their civil liberties violated will not be prosecuted, Hicks said.
“We’re very conscious of any kind of allegations of profiling,” Hicks said. “We’re very conscious of any kind of allegations of civil liberty violations, and we are very zealously guarding individuals’ civil liberties and individuals’ rights regarding their Fourth Amendment rights to be protected against illegal searches and seizures.”
Hicks’ main focus will remain on prosecuting violent crimes, driving while intoxicated and other criminal cases involving victims, he said.
“Our office is short-staffed, and we don’t have a lot of resources to spend on prosecuting cases that don’t involve acts of violence, that don’t involve DWI or that don’t involve a direct impact to the citizens of our community,” Hicks said. “We will evaluate every case on a case-by-case basis that comes to us. But as it stands right now, (SB 4) is on hold; even if it were to be in place, I still don’t anticipate very many of these cases right now.”
In a confrontation with Texas National Guard soldiers Thursday in El Paso, more than 425 migrants breached razor wire barriers to reach the border wall, Hicks said. One person was arrested for assault on a National Guardsman.
Hicks used Thursday’s incident to highlight the effect SB 4 could have on El Paso County Jail resources.
Arresting the 425 migrants who breached the razor wire would cause major issues at the El Paso County Jail and Jail Annex as the facilities cannot hold such large numbers of inmates, he said.
The El Paso district attorney’s office has been approved by the Texas governor’s office for a $1.1 million grant to help prosecute any SB 4 cases. The money will be used to hire a senior prosecutor, a paralegal, a victim advocate and an investigator, Hicks said.
The money will also be used for other resources needed by the district attorney’s office “from a vehicle to computers and everything else,” he said.
“Based on what I anticipate being a reality for prosecution under SB 4, I think between our existing programs and the additional $1.1 million, we’ll be able to handle the prosecution of what we anticipate happening with SB 4,” Hicks said.