In Texas, the local justice system in Travis County — home to Austin — is mostly known for politically motivated prosecutions by its very liberal elected prosecutors. That’s why Travis is where, for example, Gov. Rick Perry faced criminal charges for threatening to veto a bill (no, really). It’s also where Tom DeLay was charged with the campaign finance violations of which he was ultimately acquitted.
The Trump administration would like to put Travis on the map for another reason: As the number one sanctuary county in America, judging by an early list of cases in which local police departments refused to cooperate with immigration detainers issued by the Obama or Trump administrations to hold charged or convicted criminals for deportation.
The Trump administration released a list of 206 cases in which local authorities declined to cooperate with immigration authorities during one week — between January 28 and February 3 of this year. Travis County shows up in a surprisingly large 142 of them – 128 cases involving inmates of the Travis County Jail, and 14 more in the Travis County State Jail. (The report erroneously describes Travis as home to San Antonio on page 23). Of these, 51 had already been convicted, with the remainder being simply charged with crimes. All but 20 of these 142 Travis detainers were declined on the same day — February 1 — even though 122 of them date back to the Obama era.
To be sure, some of these detainees had relatively minor charges or convictions – drug possession, for example, intimidation, and in one case a conviction for illegal entry into the U.S. But none of these were garden-variety traffic stops. There were also more serious crimes, broken down below:
Sexual assault: 7
Child fondling: 4
Indecent exposure to a minor: 2
Kidnapping: 1
Robbery: 4
Burglary: 12
Domestic violence: 18
Aggravated assault: 16
Assault: 18
Carrying a prohibited weapon: 3
Hit and run: 1
DUI: 31
Vehicle theft: 1
Flight to avoid: 1
Obviously, not all offenses are equal. But the deportation of criminal illegal aliens seems like a real no-brainer. You don’t have to be an immigration hawk to see that.
This is especially obvious for those who have been convicted. But even in cases of those merely accused, there is no right to reside in the United States without authorization. Most illegal immigrants never cause enough of a problem even to be picked up by the police, let alone land charges for a serious crime.
President Obama made the same judgment as President Trump in prioritizing the deportation of those who demonstrably add to the dangers that lawful citizens face. Local jurisdictions that fail to hand over even convicted criminals are really failing their local population. And in such cases, it’s hard to blame ICE for stalking courthouses, because that’s the alternative if the federal government cares about deporting serious criminals.
There is enough risk in life already that it is malpractice in government to pass up on easy, low-hanging fruit like deporting people who commit crimes. Americans have an especially dim view of institutions that protect wrongdoers and put others at unnecessary risk by shuffling them through the system and hiding them from all the consequences of their actions. Just ask Cardinal Law, former Catholic bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. The situation he permitted to exist under his watch is not really all that different, and in a few of the Travis County cases, the crimes are similar, too.
