Council to vote on ‘sanctuary city’ suit
Mayor Sylvester Turner on Thursday said he will ask City Council to vote this month on whether to join lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Texas’ new “sanctuary cities” law, ending months of equivocation on the controversial immigration enforcement measure.
His announcement, via an early morning tweet, was an abrupt reversal from Wednesday, when the mayor said city staff still were evaluating the law and encouraged residents to voice their concerns at the Capitol.
“I will ask this month City Council to consider and vote to join the lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of SB4,” he tweeted.
If City Council votes to sue over the law known as Senate Bill 4, Houston would join San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and several other local governments and nonprofits already challenging the
state or planning to do so. The consolidated case in San Antonio is scheduled for a preliminary hearing June 26.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment on why Turner decided to put the matter before City Council.
SB4, which goes into effect Sept. 1, allows police to ask people their immigration status if detained, even for a routine traffic stop.
Sheriffs and police chiefs who refuse federal requests to hold undocumented immigrants detained for other alleged crimes could face jail time and fines under the law.
Houston could sue over SB4 without City Council approval, but Turner nonetheless promised a vote. City Council is in recess next week, meaning a vote would come June 21 at the earliest.
As of Thursday, the left-leaning City Council appeared to be breaking along party lines, with Democratic members largely favoring a lawsuit and Republican members generally opposed.
District I Councilman Robert Gallegos, who supports a lawsuit, said he worried the law could tear families apart if it causes more parents to be deported, calling it “an open door for racial profiling.”
Concerns on both sides
District C Councilwoman Ellen Cohen also plans to vote to sue, citing concerns that the law could discourage victims from reporting crimes, echoing law enforcement leaders across the state, including Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo.
“We now have a percentage of the population that, out of fear for their own lives and deportation, won’t report, and it jeopardizes women’s lives and others,” Cohen said.
At-large Councilman Michael Kubosh said he opposes a lawsuit because of the potential cost.
“I don’t want to spend the money on a lawsuit that’s already been well-funded by other cities,” Kubosh said. “It won’t have an effect on the outcome of the case.”
He and others also worried that suing the state could put Houston at risk for losing federal funding.
Two council members, Mike Laster and Brenda Stardig, declined to say how they would vote, and at-large Councilman Jack Christie said he was likely to abstain.
“I’m not in favor of suing people to just show where we stand,” Christie said. “We show where we stand by example.”
President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to withhold federal grants from so-called sanctuary cities that do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities — a move that temporarily has been blocked in court.
There was no indication, however, that a lawsuit would be accompanied by changes in local policy regarding immigration enforcement.
‘A great big political mess’
The Houston area is home to the third-largest population of immigrants in the country illegally, behind New York City and Los Angeles, according to Pew Research Center.
“It’s a great big political mess that the mayor has been, up until this point, been careful to stay out of,” At-large Councilman Mike Knox said. “It seems like an unnecessary risk that is going to take care of itself in the long run anyway.”
Beyond City Hall, news of the mayor’s plan predictably was met with cheers from the left and condemnation from the right.
“We’re very happy to see that he has listened to the community and is moving forward with this,” said Mary Moreno, communications director for the Texas Organizing Project, an advocacy group that has sued the state over SB4. “Mayor Turner loves to say we’re a welcoming city. How can we be a welcoming city when we’re not standing up for the biggest threat currently facing the Latino community?”
Harris County Republican Party Chair Paul Simpson disagreed.
“It’s improper for the mayor or the city to pander to the Democrat base and oppose a very reasonable law — a law that just asks law enforcement officials to enforce the law,” he said.
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said he views bringing a lawsuit now as relatively low-risk for the mayor.
“I don’t think Turner getting on the bandwagon at this point would cost him many political points,” Jones said. “The more he stays out and the more other blue cities and counties get involved, the more isolated he looks.”