{"id":16157,"date":"2018-01-08T17:48:52","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T22:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=16157"},"modified":"2018-12-28T11:45:05","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:45:05","slug":"police-chief-tests-texass-anti-sanctuary-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2018\/01\/08\/police-chief-tests-texass-anti-sanctuary-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Chief Tests Texas\u2019s Anti-Sanctuary Law"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Christmas Eve release of 12 illegal aliens<\/a> in San Antonio could be the first major test of Texas\u2019s anti-sanctuary law.<\/p>\n

City Police Chief William McManus let the migrants go after they were found in a semi-trailer truck that had hauled them up from the border town of Laredo. The driver was charged under a state human-smuggling law, but McManus weakened the case by freeing the only witnesses \u2013 the victims.<\/p>\n

McManus said his decision wasn\u2019t due to a particular policy, an apparent attempt to dodge Texas\u2019s Senate Bill 4<\/a>, which makes it a crime for local officials to fail to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

Smuggling investigations are routinely referred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Such was the case last July, when 10 people were found dead in a semi-trailer truck in a San Antonio Walmart parking lot. Trucks in both the July incident and the latest case, on Dec. 23, transported illegal aliens from Laredo and points south.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office has received written complaints from Texans urging the state to bring the weight of SB 4 to bear on McManus and any other San Antonio officials complicit in his action.<\/p>\n

“We are accepting citizen complaints against government entities that violate SB 4 and will take appropriate action after investigation,” spokesman Marc Rylander said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Paxton\u2019s office is currently defending SB 4 in federal appeals court, where it\u2019s being challenged by open-borders activists<\/a> and others, including the City of San Antonio. Most of the law remains in effect during the litigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mike Helle, president of the San Antonio Police union, said the city\u2019s top cop went rogue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case should have been handled by Homeland (Security). They\u2019re the ones that should be handling human smuggling cases,\u201d Helle told the San Antonio Express-News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow McManus gets a hold of this, interjects himself into the situation, and starts calling Catholic Charities and all the people he can get a hold of to basically get rid of all these illegals before the feds get there,\u201d Helle said.<\/p>\n

In a violation of departmental procedure, detectives at police headquarters were directed not to check the witnesses\u2019 names against federal and state criminal databases.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf any one of our guys did this, they\u2019d probably be put on administrative duty and terminated,\u201d Helle said.<\/p>\n

A.J. Louderback, a Texas sheriff who helped craft SB 4, said it was \u201ca simple call to call ICE or Homeland Security Investigations to take over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t buy the idea that this was a confusing we-don\u2019t-know-what-to-do thing, especially when we\u2019ve had tragedies involving large numbers of people being transported illegally,\u201d Louderback told FAIR.<\/p>\n

\u201cTexans and Americans want the rule of law enforced, and if you can\u2019t trust law enforcement to do that, you\u2019ve got a bigger problem.\u201d<\/p>\n