SAN ANTONIO – The status of a new Texas law aimed at statewide immigration has had several twists and turns in recent weeks.
Senate Bill 4, which empowers state and local law enforcement officers to arrest people suspected of entering the United States illegally, passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature last November. Governor Greg Abbott signed SB4 into law on Dec. 18, 2023.
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A first offense of illegal border crossing would be a misdemeanor, and a second offense would be a felony.
The law was expected to go into effect this month, but subsequent lawsuits by the Americans Civil Liberties Union and the Department of Justice – as well as U.S. District Judge David Ezra blocking the law on Feb. 29 — have kept SB4′s status up in the air.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals deferred any ruling to the Supreme Court, which allowed the law to briefly go into effect on Tuesday, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals then blocked SB4 again late Tuesday night.
The quick changes have raised several questions about how law enforcement officials across South Texas should carry out a law while its status remains unclear.
Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar cites potential ‘liability’ for deputies, sheriff’s office
“Here at the sheriff’s office, we’ve actually drafted up a new policy that is going to deal with it and is going to guide how our response goes,” Salazar said Monday. “We need our deputies to understand, ‘Hey, look, we may not be allowed to tell you can’t enforce a law.’ That’s not what we’re saying. What we are saying, though, is if you choose to do it, you’re assuming some liability for yourself. You’re putting this agency in a whole lot of liability, and we want to make sure that you know exactly what you’re doing and what you’re getting into before you start going into all of this effort for a misdemeanor.
“Granted, if somebody breaks a major law or victimizes somebody, absolutely, we’re going to arrest that person and book them into the jail, like we’re doing here. But with that being said, there’s a whole lot of work that needs to get done to make an arrest under this what amounts to a misdemeanor charge.”
350-479 Sb 4 Probable Cause Form by nkotisso on Scribd
Laredo Police Department Chief Miguel Rodriguez, Jr. stresses the importance of ‘training’
“It’s very important that we train, and train, and train because we want to avoid the racial profiling part of this law that it lends itself for that,” Rodriguez Jr. said during a Wednesday news conference. “But, again, racial profiling is a law that not only is a violation in Texas, but it’s a violation in the entire United States. We cannot do that. It’s very important that we do not do that. So, it’s very important that we focus on training and we already have the curriculum at PD (Laredo Police Department). We already shared that curriculum with the (Webb County) sheriff’s department, and we are already ready to train our officers under this new law.”
Mission Police Department: We will ‘enforce Texas law’
The Mission Police Department, located along the U.S.-Mexico border, said its focus will be much more specific than other law enforcement agencies that are not as close to the border.
“We have to have, beyond a reasonable doubt, that someone crossed in between the ports, coming over into the United States in order for us to make that arrest,” Mission Police Department public information officer Arturo Flores told KRGV. “We have to visually see them coming across that river (Rio Grande).”
Flores said enforcement would not include residents who live in the United States.
“If someone already lives here, and they are here illegally, we’re not even going to focus on that,” Flores said to KRGV. “Our goal is to make sure our community is safe, and that’s basically it. I am letting the community know that they are safe here.”
West Texas Border counties unsure of where to take in arrested migrants
Three West Texas officials — Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland, Brewster County Sheriff Ronny Dodson and Presidio County Judge Joe Portillo — told NPR last month their concerns about how much the law, if enforced, could cost each county.
“We don’t have the resources to jail or house people where I can just easily turn them over to Border Patrol,” Cleveland said in February.
“My problem is in our area is we don’t have no place to put them,” Dodson said. “I mean, even if we arrest them and put them in jail, most of these folks ain’t never going to be able to pay a fine. I worry about the burden that’s going to put on these counties.”
“Once you take someone into custody, it does have a fiscal cost,” Portillo said. “They need to eat. God forbid one of them needs a doctor. There will be an added cost to the county.”
What’s next for SB4
A three-judge panel making up the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing Wednesday that ended with no ruling on the law, the Associated Press reported.
As of Wednesday, SB4 is not in effect.