There are 31 members of the Texas State Senate, and so far as I know, only one of them has written a letter to Attorney General Greg Abbott as a prelude to fighting so-called “sanctuary city” policies that turn a blind-eye to illegal immigration.
Signaling a revival of the illegal immigration debate in the 2009 legislative session, two Republican state lawmakers have asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on a thorny subject: “sanctuary cities.”
The term has been used to describe Austin, Houston and dozens of other cities across the United States that don’t require police or other municipal employees to report to federal authorities people who may be in the country illegally.
In a letter sent to Abbott this month, Rep. Frank Corte Jr. of San Antonio and Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston asked whether the Texas Legislature has the authority to deter local governments from adopting policies — or to invalidate existing policies — that hinder state enforcement of federal immigration laws.
Such policies “would include those that prevent local citizens, officials, or law enforcement agencies from cooperating with the federal government regarding a person’s immigration status,” their letter says. “Although federal law expressly forbids local policies that prohibit or restrict information regarding immigrant status, sanctuary cities continue to support such policies.”
[h/t: Austin American-Statesman]
If you are interested in learning more about the Corte/Patrick letter, hopefully you either live in Austin or Dallas or El Paso, where the story is covered in local papers today.
If you are actually one of Sen. Patrick’s constituents or live in the Greater Houston area generally, however, you are out of luck–no mention appears in Houston’s Leading Information Source.
A missed story that strikes me as a rookie mistake on the part of the Austin bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle.
UPDATED, 10:32 am
The Houston Chronicle is now on the case!
Online.
From the Associated Press.
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Have no fear, Matt. Because of their new relationship with the Express (ha), the Chron was able to run this timely story today:
Pet death during traffic stop has officer in the dog house
I’m sure they will pick up Sen. Patrick’s letter next week.
The Chron is too busy looking over the edge of the cliff to be distracted by news affecting Houston.
Right on Dan Patrick and Frank Corte, Jr. in asking AG Greg Abbott about enforcing immigration laws within Texas.
#1 BJ
Don’t you know anything ? It’s the San Antonio Express-Snooze !
We find the article about “sanctuary” and “illegal” being key terms in addressing the state and local issues of the federal immigration policy. It appears the Fed’s, short handed as they are in the Border Patrol organization, might just rely on state and local law enforcement to assist them in these endevors. Maybe it’s past time to set the ground rules for the great state of Texas if AG Greg Abbot will get off his duff.
Of course with this lawmaker “illegal” isn’t in his vocabulary which should have been included. (The insertion and bold are mine)
And the Crummyicle wonders why subscriptions are down. Lucky for the rest of us there is the internet and therefore we don’t need the Crummyicle to NOT TELL US because when we find out we will think less of the Crummyicle then we already do.
Chronicle policy: Better late than never….or stick it on page 32 as one paragraph at the bottom of an ad page……that ought to cover it!