A small town on the Texas Mexico border filed suit in federal court today, asking a judge to throw out the new Texas law banning Sanctuary Cities which Gov. Greg Abbott signed Sunday night, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Attorney Luis Vera, staff counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, says the new law violates the Tenth Amendment, as well as the due process requirements of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
"The Tenth Amendment allows certain rights to remain with the people themselves," Vera said. "Not with the federal government, not with the state government, but with the people."
"In conscious and blatant disregard of federal law and constitutional protections, the State of Texas seeks to coerce local authorities into either abandoning or foregoing establishment of what are generally known as 'Sanctuary City' laws and policies," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit claims the state is requiring that local governmental entities and law enforcement officials to 'unquestionably comply' with federal immigration laws.
The town of El Cenizo, which is the lead plaintiffs in the case, has been a 'sanctuary' for refugees since before Texas was a part of the United States, and the lawsuit claims the town was created as a haven for people 'fleeing countries in the midst of violent civil wars.' The community has been a self declared 'Sanctuary City since 1999.
"Importantly, this status does not protect criminals or prevent people from being prosecuted for illegal acts," Vera said. "Instead, it protects children by ensuring that their parents feel safe taking them to playgrounds, to schools, and to seek health care. They protect families from being split up when parents of children born in the United States are deported. And they protect the safety and health of all residents of El Ceinzo, by helping to ensure that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, feels safe reporting crimes, cooperating with police investigations, and seeking medical treatment."
The lawsuit asks that the court 'declare that SB 4 is unconstitutional and invalid on its face.'
Abbott said the state's new Sanctuary City law, which takes effect in September, will make Texas safer by requiring that all police agencies fully cooperate with immigration officials, by honoring requests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to turn over individuals in their jails to be processed for possible deportation rather than being released.
The Texas law, which has been described as the 'toughest' anti Sanctuary City law in the country, calls for criminal charges and jail time for police chiefs, sheriffs, officials of colleges and universities, and other local officials who fail to cooperate in immigration enforcement.
"The State of Texas come up with a bill that will punish police officers if they don't help enforce immigration law," Vera said. "Congress never intended for it to be mandatory for local governments to enforce immigration laws.
Ironically, Abbott and other Texas Republican leaders have long cited the Tenth Amendment in their fight against what they see as the 'overreach' of the federal government.