Abbott warns cities, colleges about becoming sanctuaries

Governor threatens to cut funding to protective campuses.

What are some the challenges you see?

We have some issues we have to tackle head-on. We have seen a 10 percent increase in violent crime right now in the city of Austin, and that is unprece- dented over the past decade. It’s happening all over the country . ... We are going to work on our data-driven approach to make sure we are putting the officers in the areas where they are most needed and have the most impact. That is something I’m going to double-down on.

Clearly the DNA lab is front and center. We’re working on that ... to identify our best way forward from here. We are going to take a twopronged approach. We want to understand what hap- pened in the past and how did we get in this situation, and most importantly, what is the best path forward. What is your philosophy about officer accountability, particularly on high-profile use-of-force incidents?

As supervisors, we all have to be accountable, but it’s not always about accountability in the discipline process. I want to focus on account- ability much earlier. Hold them accountable early on and hopefully we will catch officers who may be heading down a bad path much earlier, and maybe we can fine- tune them, tweak them, so that they don’t end up mak- ing a big mistake.

Although there have been some cases that have been controversial in our community, there have been some cases where the member- ship has questioned a decision the chief made as far as discipline, and in many of those cases I was probably sitting second chair to the chief in those decisions.

You have to be account- able to the public, you have to be accountable to your peers and to your super- visors, because we have to have the public’s trust. How important is the role of the community going to be in your administration?

As important as it has been. I’m going to form some advisory groups so that I can be aware of the challenges in the community. We talk to our young activists regu- larly, whether it is at special meetings . ... But I’m actu- ally going to approach them to see if we can meet on a more formal basis on a regularly scheduled time, just to keep the lines of communication open.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has weighed in — critically but not all that clearly —on the growing “sanctuary campus” movement.

Here’s what the governor posted to Twitter on Thurs- day:

“Texas will not tolerate sanctuary campuses or cities. I will cut funding for any state campus if it establishes sanctuary status.”

Neither Abbott nor his office defined sanctuary status or explained exactly how he would cut funding.

He presumably was responding to petitions circulating in Texas and elsewhere in support of students who entered the country without legal authorization. The peti- tions are fueled by the elec- tion of Donald Trump, who said during his campaign for the White House that he would do away with the Deferred Action for Child- hood Arrivals Program, or DACA, a signature initiative of President Barack Obama that gives young people temporary protection from depor- tation as well as permission to work.

More than 1,000 faculty members, students, staff members and alumni have signed an online petition call- ing on Texas State University administrators to “immediately establish our academic institution as a sanctuary campus.”

Earlier this week, Texas State President Denise Trauth said in an open letter that she was reviewing the matter to determine the university’s role, adding that she is “staunchly committed to our core values that include diversity, equality, and inclu- sion.” Student Government President Andrew Homann said Friday that his organization cannot support the petition because implement- ing it would violate state and federal laws.

An online petition calling on administrators to establish the University of Texas as a sanctuary campus has more than 2,100 supporters. UT President Gregory L. Fenves told student lead- ers that the university has no legal authority to become a sanctuary campus but noted that he has signed a letter supporting DACA, as have more than 400 other lead- ers of colleges and universities, including UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven.

“We protect all student information” under the federal student privacy law, Fenves told student lead- ers, according to an article in the Daily Texan. “That is all information including immigration status, so that information is not available without going through a legal process.”

Any public university president in Texas likely would incur wrath from Abbott and some Republican leaders in the Legislature if he or she went as far as Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League school.

“The University of Pennsylvania will not allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)/Customs and Border Protection (CBP)/U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on our campus unless required by warrant,” Gutmann said in a message to the university community this week.