It isn't just the Texas Attorney General's office that will investigate the San Antonio Police Department's handling of the immigrant smugling case on I-35 last month, City Councilman Greg Brockhouse wants some answers too, and he wants an 'in depth briefing' by the police chief, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
When SAPD arrested a trucker with 12 uninjured illegal immigrants in his trailer, he was arrested for human smuggling, but the 10 men and two women were released to Catholic Charities. Chief Bill McManus has said he decided to handle the case under state law, so he waved off Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and said he had 'no authority' to arrest the illegal immigrants, because illegal entry is not a state crime.
This even though federal authorities who did have the authority were on the scene.
"The facts are scattered and I have asked for an in-depth briefing on the response by the Police Chief, to include full reporting of the officers on scene and body camera video,"Brockhouse said.
He says he also wants to know why the SAPD apparentely took the 12 at their word that they were simply immigrants, and didn't do any criminal background checks to determine if they were criminals, or even terrorists.
"Were any SAPD standard operating policies and procedures modified during this response," Brockhouse asked of the decision to wave off ICE and release the immigrants.
Brockhouse is also hopping made over the fact that City Council heard about this on the news.
"Unfortunately, the City Council was not notified this incident occurred for 10 days. That is totally unacceptable and a lapse in judgment by senior City leadership. It appears that the reporting of this story in the news was the only reason the City Council was notified about this incident," he said."Unfortunately, the City Council was not notified this incident occurred for 10 days. That is totally unacceptable and a lapse in judgment by senior City leadership. It appears that the reporting of this story in the evening news was the only reason the City Council was notified about this incident."
A spokesman for the Texas Attorney General has already said the SAPD response will be investigated to see if it violates SB-4, the state's new anti Sanctuary City law.