The bill banning so called 'Sanctuary Cities in Texas also calls for potential jail time for sheriffs, mayors, and university presidents for allowing their communities, jails, or campuses to bypass federal immigration laws, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The bill already called for stripping all state funding away from any 'Sanctuary' communities, and allowed civil lawsuits to be filed against local officials in cases where an individual becomes a victim of a crime committed by an illegal immigrant who was released from a local jail despite being wanted by federal immigration authorities for possible deportation.
It also potentially allows the state to remove elected local officials who fail to follow the law.
Alan Saxe, a political observer at the University of Texas at Arlington, says the message is clearly getting out, that Gov. Greg Abbott means business on this issue.
"If Travis County violates, in his mind, federal immigration law, which he believes that it did, he has deprived it of about $1.6 million in state funds," Sax said.
Now the bill goes to the Texas House, where political strategist Harold Cook tells 1200 WOAI news there is not nearly as strong support.
Cook says the House, which consists more of traditional conservatives than the movement conservatives who run the Senate, will put more emphasis on the testimony of Chief of Police, like San Antonio's William McManus, who testified that their first job is to enforce the criminal laws, not federal immigration statutes.
"They are running multi million dollar budgets, they are front and center on the street keeping people safe," Cook said. "They want to be able to control their own law enforcement priorities."
McManus testified that his officers are not trained in enforcing federal immigration law, and he pointed out that if the word gets out that local police are snitching to the Border Patrol, cooperation with the feds from immigrant communities across the city will dry up.
Cook pointed out that House Speaker Joe Straus, unlike Senate President Dan Patrick and Governor Abbott, has not made fighting Sanctuary Cities a priority.
"The lion's share of the House Democrats will be looking at the local control issues, and the humanitarian issues involving divided families," Cook said.Then there's the question of what a Sanctuary City is.
Opponents of the Texas legislation point out that there is no state or federal law that requires local sheriff's to cooperate with federal immigration officials in holding individuals on immigration 'detainers.' They also point out that the federal government does not pay the costs of continuing to hold these individuals in county jails, at a rate of $300 per person per day, meaning local taxpayers have to foot the bill.
San Antonio says it is not a Sanctuary City, but, due to Chief McManus' position, many border security advocates say it is a Sanctuary City.
IMAGE' WOAI