Updated: Texas Senate Panel Passes Bill to Ban Sanctuary Cities

A bill that would ban illegal-alien sanctuary cities, local entities that do not enforce immigration laws, passed through a Texas Senate subcommittee on Monday. SB 185, introduced by state Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), would cut off state funding for local governments or governmental entities that adopt policies that forbid police officers from asking about the immigration status of a person detained or arrested.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me to have an opportunity to continue to provide safe, secure borders, and then to have cities that undermine that initiative,” Sen. Perry told the subcommittee. “Rule of law is important and we must ensure that local governments do not pick and choose the laws that they choose to enforce.”

According to analysis by the Texas Senate Research Center, the bill would block state funding for municipalities that have policies that bar officers from:

(1) Inquiring into the immigration status of a person lawfully detained for the investigation of a criminal offense or arrested;

(2) With respect to information relating to the immigration status, lawful or unlawful, of any person lawfully detained for the investigation of a criminal offense or arrested:

(A) sending the information to or requesting or receiving the information from United States Citizenship and Immigration Services or United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including information regarding a person’s place of birth;

(B) maintaining the information; or

(C) exchanging the information with another federal, state, or local governmental entity;

(3) assisting or cooperating with a federal immigration officer as reasonable and necessary, including providing enforcement assistance; or

(4) permitting a federal immigration officer to enter and conduct enforcement activities at a municipal or county jail to enforce federal immigration laws.

The bill passed through the subcommittee after a party-line vote. The bill moves to the Senate Committee on Veteran Affairs and Military Installations where, according to the Texas Tribune, it is likely to pass and advance to the full chamber.

UPDATE: On Wednesday, the full Veteran Affairs and Military Installations Committee voted to pass the legislation on a party-line 4-3 vote. The bill now heads the the full Senate for a vote.

Read the SB 185