A federal appeals court today allowed Texas to enforce a portion of that controversial law outlawing so called 'Sanctuary Cities' while a trial judge considers the constitutionality of the law, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
A three judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says portions of the law that says local governments may not 'prohibit or materially limit officials' like County Sheriffs and police chiefs from 'assisting or cooperating with the federal immigration officers as reasonable or necessary, including providing 'enforcement assistance' does not require that local officials require detention pursuant to every Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request, but in fact requires local officials simply to cooperate 'according to existing ICE detainer practice and law.'
The court pointed out that, if the person named in an ICE detainer provides proof of legal residency, the law does not allow that person to be detained.
A key concern of the Republican majority in the Texas Legislature was to prohibit local officials from releasing jail inmates who had been placed under a hold, or 'detainer' by ICE, pursuant to deportation proceedings.
“We are pleased today’s 5th Circuit ruling will allow Texas to strengthen public safety by implementing the key components of Senate Bill 4,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said. “Enforcing immigration law helps prevent dangerous criminals from being released into Texas communities. I am confident Senate Bill 4 will be found constitutional and ultimately upheld.”
The court said the state has agreed that the wording of part of the law is vague and confusing, and the Appeals Court declined to lift the stay imposed by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio last month in those clauses.
The Appeals Court stressed that while the state is 'likely to succeed on the merits' of the portions of the law that the law that was upheld, but stressed this does not interfere with Garcia's request for a hearing on the constitutionality of the law, saying 'the merits of the district court's order are for a different day and a different panel of this court.'
Opponents of the law, dubbed S.B. 4, also declared victory after the court blocked several other key provisions of the law from taking effect. State Rep. Jose Rodriguez, a Democrat who chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, one of the groups that sued to block the law, says the eventual fate of the law is still up to Judge Garcia, in a hearing set for early November.
“SB 4 must be disposed of in a timely manner so that the legislature can move on and get to work on the issues that matter to all Texans," Rodriguez said. "If the state’s delay tactics to succeed, it will further normalize Texas Republicans’ dysfunctional one-party rule and condemn Texas Latinos to living under a cloud of uncertainty and fear.”