The Governor of Texas has made into a law a new measure banning sanctuary cities in his state. This follows months of cracking down on undocumented immigrants, spearheaded by President Donald Trump. The law bars cities from calling themselves sanctuary cities and allows any immigrants detained by police to have their immigration status officially checked.
The law also forces local officials to comply with requests from federal immigration agencies to hold criminal immigrant suspects for deportation. Sheriffs who refuse to do so could face arrest. Sanctuary cities have been limiting the degree to which they must cooperate with the efforts of the federal government to enforce current immigration law, in the hope of cutting down on deportations so that undocumented immigrants will enroll their kids in school and be more likely to report crimes.
Republican Governor, Greg Abbott, signed the measure into law on Sunday, despite police chiefs from some of the largest cities in the state pleading with him not to, claiming that it will hinder their ability to stop crime. Texas has been at the center of the debate over immigration, with the biggest Mexican border of any state in the US and an estimated undocumented immigrant population of 1.5 million.
In a statement, Abbott said his top priority as Governor is public safety and that this aim was furthered by the new bill, which would keep dangerous immigrant criminals out of Texas communities. The law comes into effect on 1 September.