Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez ignited the Texas fight over sanctuary cities. Now she\u2019s resigning her post and running for governor.<\/p>\n
The sheriff from the Big D upped her profile this year when she announced she would only selectively honor detainer requests from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is commonsense,\u201d Valdez explained in nonsensical fashion. \u201cThere\u2019s no way that immigration can hold all of the people that are undocumented. There\u2019s no way that I can hold all of them in my jail.\u201d<\/p>\n
Local sanctuary policies, such as the one carried out by the Dallas Sheriff\u2019s Department resulted in the Texas Legislature passing Senate Bill 4<\/a>, requiring local law-enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration matters. The law subjects non-compliant officials to fines or removal from office.<\/p>\n Valdez made headlines with specious and unsubstantiated claims about supposed benefits of sanctuary cities, repeating the urban myth that sanctuary policies make for safer communities.<\/p>\n In a newspaper column<\/a>, she and other pro-sanctuary sheriffs asserted, \u201cFBI crime statistics have found that labeled sanctuary cities experience lower rates of all crime types, including homicides.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s news to ICE acting director Thomas Homan<\/a>, who reported that some 10,000 criminal aliens released by sanctuary cities have committed other crimes nationally.<\/p>\n Valdez complains that SB 4 \u201ccoerce[s]local law enforcement to dedicate frequently scarce resources \u2014 such as jail space, on-duty officers and local tax dollars \u2014 to a job that is supposed to be done and funded by the federal government.\u201d The law, she said, \u201cperpetuate[s]instability by making it impossible for us to effectively direct and manage our deputies.\u201d<\/p>\n Meantime, Valdez has come under criticism for the management her own jail. As the Dallas Morning News<\/a> tells it: \u201cWhen we asked why the media is not made aware of escaped prisoners or deaths in custody, [Valdez] responded that it often takes hours for deputies to notify\u00a0her and implied that this wasn’t a problem because reporters will find out through unofficial sources.\u201d<\/p>\n The sheriff can\u2019t blame ICE or SB 4 for any of that. If Valdez thinks sanctuary polices are the ticket to higher office, she may soon discover that she is out of touch with voters.