Fight back
City Council should join in the lawsuit against the ‘sanctuary cities’ bill.
Who do you trust to run your police department? A Houston cop or a bunch of Austin politicians?
That’s the crux of the argument against one of the worst bills passed in the last session of the Texas Legislature. That’s saying a lot. But it’s the simple truth about Senate Bill 4, the so-called sanctuary cities bill that overrides local police department policies on whether officers can ask people about immigration status.
Houston City Council this week will debate whether to join San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and other local governments in a lawsuit fighting this usurpation of municipal powers. We agree with the parade of citizens who are scheduled to speak out against this law at City Hall today. Our council members should vote to battle this misguided legislation.
The new law dictates that local governments and police chiefs can’t forbid their officers from asking people whether they’re in this country legally. It also threatens to fine or jail sheriffs and chiefs who refuse requests from federal authorities to hold immigrants detained for other alleged crimes.
Nobody in Texas believes in law and order more deeply than our state’s police chiefs, so it’s compelling that leaders of police departments are actively opposing this legislation. Their biggest concern is fighting crimes against people and property, and they understand that their officers need to have strong and open relationships with the communities they’re sworn to serve and protect. They know those relationships will suffer if officers start asking everyone they encounter whether they’re here legally. It’s an even bigger concern if those questions are posed because of the color of someone’s skin.
Here in Houston, we’re already seeing an ominous sign of how this legislation might make our city a more dangerous place to live. As the federal government has ratcheted up deportations of immigrants here illegally, rape reports filed by Hispanic victims dropped a stunning 43 percent during the first quarter of this year, and reports of other violent crimes against Hispanics dropped 13 percent. Getting rapists off our streets is way more important than getting otherwise law-abiding, undocumented immigrants out of our country.
When Gov. Greg Abbott was Texas attorney general, he bragged about how often he sued the federal government for encroaching on the powers of the state. Now that the state government is trying to tell local governments how to do their jobs, it’s time for Texas cities to follow Abbott’s example and take the “sanctuary cities” bill to court.