Attorneys aligned with the open borders lobby are upset by the Texas-sized ban on sanctuary cities.
Under an historic bill signed by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, sanctuary cities which release criminal illegal immigrants, subsequently ignoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, will see the “stiffest penalties in America,” Abbott told Breitbart Texas in an exclusive interview.
The safety measure to make sure criminal illegal immigrants are deported out of the U.S. has devastated open borders activists with the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
In a statement, AILA said it “condemns” the sanctuary city ban, citing claims of “profiling of people based on immigration status.”
“The Texas bill is a direct attack on local police and sheriff’s authority to keep their own communities safe: the bill imposes stiff penalties, including jail time and removal from office if a local official refuses to honor a detainer or to participate in federal immigration enforcement,” the news release stated.
AILA President William Stock was equally distraught by the sanctuary ban, tying it to racism without providing any evidence to back up the claim, and also promised it will “lead to court challenges.”
“There is no legal definition of ‘sanctuary city’ and our country’s laws prohibit racial profiling, but neither of those facts swayed Governor Abbott and the Texas legislators who voted for this bill,” Stock said in the statement. “This law will lead to court challenges as the state tries to force localities to act contrary to the Constitution. Making state authorities complicit in warrantless immigration detention through state law will not benefit anyone – immigrants are integral to our communities and requiring state and local police to participate in a ‘deportation force’ will undermine community trust.”
AILA’s cries over the sanctuary city ban echo fellow open border organizations, who are now trying to stop the deportation of even the most violent, illegal immigrants, Breitbart Texas reported.
While there is no way yet to know how many illegal immigrants are sitting in Texas prisons for state and local crimes, the Department of Justice released data last week indicating that more than 41,500 illegal immigrants were in federal prisons, Breitbart Texas reported.
Sanctuary cities remain incredibly unpopular with the American public. As Breitbart Texas reported, approximately 80 percent of American voters oppose sanctuary city policies which refuse to notify federal authorities before releasing an accused illegal immigrant.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.