Officials from Austin push back against Texas’ fight against Obama’s executive amnesty at the same time that Dallas County revolts against detainers from the Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement (ICE) that allow criminal illegal aliens back on the streets.
The mayor of Austin, Steve Adler, joined forces with Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt in trying to block Texas officials from fighting the Obama Administration over the president’s executive amnesty order, which allows millions of illegal aliens to avoid deportation. The state’s lawsuit, filed by then Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, temporarily blocked Obama’s deferred action plan when Judge Andrew Hanen put a halt on the program. That battle is ongoing in the federal court system. The current attorney general, Ken Paxton, continues the fight with Washington in the courts.
“I urge these state leaders to drop opposition to these federal programs because of the benefits they can provide to our local communities,” Mayor Adler said while standing on a stage full of illegal aliens at a meeting of the Workers Defense Project, the Texas Tribune reported. County Judge Eckhardt said the lawsuit was being waged by “those who wish to play politics with peoples’ lives.” She declared that Travis County’s “economic success was built on immigration.”
Eckhardt failed to distinguish between the contributions of hard working legal immigrants and those who come to this country illegally. She also did not mention the exploitation of illegal aliens committed by the cartel crime organizations that smuggle them into the country and the employers who cheat these workers either through wage theft, indentured servitude, or worker misclassification.
In Dallas County, Sheriff Lupe Lopez announced a program to ease up on ICE detention holds, Breitbart Texas reported on Monday. She recently began her campaign for re-election as the county’s sheriff.
“Immigration is a federal law. I don’t know why they keep expecting me to take care of federal issues,” Lopez told the Dallas Morning News in an interview. “We make our decisions based on reason, safety and what’s best for the community,” she said. The sheriff did not elaborate on how releasing criminal illegal aliens into the community before ICE is able to determine if there is grounds for detention or deportation makes her community safer.
Cities like Austin and Dallas create a “pull” force, which increases the numbers of illegal aliens who cross the borders knowing of an oasis in the desert. Knowing there are cities in Texas where these people can “hide in plain sight” creates the magnet of hope for many who might not otherwise attempt the life-threatening journey across South Texas.
Breitbart Texas managing director Brandon Darby previously reported on one such amnesty shelter located in Austin, Casa Marianella. Darby called shelters like Casa Marianella “law-free” zones on U.S. soil.
The group provides aid to “undocumented worker communities,” and does so in plain sight. It not only openly discusses its shelter for illegal immigrants and “asylum seekers,” but during my own experiences helping the FBI combat human trafficking, it was common knowledge that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) routinely visits the center — but does not enforce U.S. laws on the center’s grounds.
Attorney General Paxton’s office responded to an inquiry from the Tribune about the on-going lawsuit. Spokesperson Cynthia Meyer referred to Obama’s use of his pen to prompt “some of the most massive changes to national immigration policy in history.”
“Whether you agree with the policy or not, every single American should be concerned with the president’s use of executive action to accomplish what he couldn’t in Congress,” Meyer told the Tribune. “We need to leave lawmaking to lawmakers and preserve the separation of powers our nation was founded on — that’s what our lawsuit is about.”
Twenty five other states have joined with Texas in fighting the Obama Administration in court. The court battle has raised fireworks of its own after the exposure the Obama Administration’s attempts to do an end-around the courts and start the implementation of the program. In July, Breitbart Texas’ Lana Shadwick reported that Judge Andrew Hanen ordered Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and other federal defendants into his court to explain why he should not hold them in contempt for their actions. Breitbart writers have provided extensive coverage of this on-going litigation which could end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
These liberal city and county leaders also seem to ignore the crime impact that has followed the unprecedented surge in illegal aliens crossing the Texas border with the help of the criminal drug and human smuggling cartels.
Violent crime is on the rise in Austin following last summer’s border surge, according to FBI crime statistics obtained by Breitbart Texas. Murders are up by nearly twenty percent when comparing 2013 to 2014. Thirty-two murders were committed in Texas’ capital city during 2014 compared to twenty-six the previous year. The number of rapes more than doubled during the same period. Rapes increased from 217 in 2013 to 571 in 2014. Robberies increased from 763 to 873 over the same period. The only violent crime category that took a downward trend was aggravated assaults which fell by 12 – 2117 in 2013 compared to 2105 in 2014. It should be noted that the FBI instituted a new definition of rape between the 2013 and 2014 reporting periods. The impact of that change in definition on the numbers is not clear.
In the city of Dallas, murders and robberies decreased from 2013 to 2014 while rapes and aggravated assaults increased. Again, the definition of rape change in reporting could have some impact in the increased numbers of reported rapes.
Obama’s executive action named, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) was designed to allow approximately five million illegal aliens to stay in the United States and apply for work permits. They would be required to pass background checks, have not been in any legal trouble since entering the country illegally, and paid back taxes and fines.
The lawsuit against the president is aimed at stopping his unlawful action of creating new law that he himself stated repeatedly he did not have the authority to do. The actions by the leaders in Austin and Dallas appear to attempt to undermine the rule of law being guarded by the leaders of Texas.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas and is a member of the original Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.