Texas Sheriff Seeks to Twist the Law to Persist with Sanctuary Cities

President Trump’s pledge to get control of illegal immigration and to secure our borders naturally runs right in to the bizarre phenomenon of sanctuary cities. The idea that mayors, police chiefs, and sheriffs would boldly assert the right to shelter federal fugitives from arrest and deportation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents is just that — bizarre.

And that’s what these illegal migrants are, fugitives. They have broken federal law by entering the country illegally, and are hiding from law enforcement in enclaves set up by left-wing politicians who apparently do not care that among these people they are hiding are no doubt a collection of murderers, drug dealers, rapists, and criminals of assorted varieties. Hence, they are derelict in their responsibility to protect the citizens under their jurisdiction.

Speaking of dereliction, in Texas we have perhaps one of the most derelict of law enforcement officers in the nation. One who is eager to bend the meaning of laws in order to find a way to skirt Texas’ new sanctuary city law.

Travis County Sheriff “Sanctuary Sally” Hernandez came up with the idea of instructing crime victims who happen to be in the country illegally on how they can apply for a “U visa,” Fox 7 in Austin reported. Merely filing out the application for the visa, intended to help true crime victims, is enough to at least temporarily block immigration officials from deporting an applicant.

Her work continues to propagate the myth that Texas’ new sanctuary city law (previously known as Senate Bill 4) is a threat to crime victims.

Sally and her subordinates claim the new law will make it difficult to help migrants who are victims of crimes. But that is an intentional misreading of the law to suit their own goal of perpetuating sanctuary cities.

Their statement ignores the fact that SB 4 specifically prohibits officers from inquiring about the immigration status of a crime victim or a witness to a crime, unless the information is pertinent to the crime as in the case of human smuggling or sex trafficking crimes.

So the sheriff and her officers are printing up and will distribute fliers to teach illegal migrants how to get around the law.

In apparently ignoring this section of the new law (effective September 1, 2017), the Travis County Sheriff’s Office is preparing to pro-actively distribute flyers. These flyers could be used to teach people how to abuse or take advantage of a program designed to protect true victims of or witnesses to crimes.

Sheriff Hernandez is having the pamphlets printed up to begin distribution, Travis County Sheriff’s Office Spokesman Kristin Dark told Breitbart Texas in an email response. It is currently being published in English and Spanish, despite the fact that Travis County has immigrant communities speaking many different languages. The report by Fox 7 does not state what funds the sheriff is using to pay for these pamphlets. Dark told Breitbart Texas she would research the source of funding.

Not every law enforcement leader in Texas is on board with “Sanctuary Sally.”

At least one Democrat Texas sheriff stood up to tell the truth about SB 4. Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra joined with local chiefs of police in the Rio Grande Valley to try and calm the flames of fear being fanned by others across the state. “As Texas Governor Greg Abbott has stated [SB 4] is simply a mechanism such that when someone has a criminal record, or who is also wanted by [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement], they are going to be detained and turned over to ICE,” Sheriff Guerra told local reporters. “If you have not committed a crime, regardless of your immigration status, and unless you are subject to an ICE detainer, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Again, it is not the place of sheriffs or police chiefs to use their personal political beliefs to determine which laws they will enforce and which they will ignore.

If Sanctuary Sally doesn’t get this, perhaps she needs to spend some time in jail with the female prisoners her department has sent there. That would be interesting.

Source: Breitbart