Texas Deputy Attorney General Brantley Starr told the Texas legislature that is was possible to enact legislation that would pass Constitutional muster and still address the illegal immigration crisis.
Since Barack Obama refuses to enforce federal immigration law, the consequences have fallen to states especially border states like Texas and Arizona.
These states have tried to fight back against the rampant criminality of illegal aliens through a variety of legislation and initiatives which have been attacked by Obama’s federal lawyers.
“You do have the ability to create state-level offenses that have an immigration element to them as long as they are sufficiently unique,” he said, citing House Bill 11, the Legislature’s 2015 omnibus border security bill.
The bill, signed by Abbott in June, made it a state felony to smuggle someone into the country for pay. Starr said he believes the bill would stand up to a court challenge on Constitutional grounds if one were brought. (There is no current challenge, the attorney general’s office confirmed.)
“There were new state-level elements to that offense [in] that you’re taking money in exchange for bringing someone across the border illegally,” he said. “And the addition of the new state-level elements to that offense made it sufficiently unique.”
The new laws are already helping state police apprehend alleged criminals that federal agents might let go, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told the committee.
States can also regulate the expansion of so-called “sanctuary cities” where local law enforcement agents refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials.
Starr also said he believes state lawmakers can pass a bill outlawing “sanctuary cities” that would withstand a court challenge. The Supreme Court upheld one of four provisions of a controversial Arizona law, SB 1070, dubbed the “show me your papers” bill, allowing police to ask a person if they were in the country legally, Starr said.
But it didn’t take away the power of the federal government to deport the person, which is why it wasn’t struck down.
“That law survived because it could be implemented in a way that ultimately left discretion to the federal government to detain that person and remove them from the country,” he said.
Starr said that an essential element to a Texas “sanctuary cities” bill would be carving out an exception for school districts because the Supreme Court has already ruled that students cannot be questioned about their immigration status. The school exception was included in the state’s 2011 proposal that failed to make it to former Gov. Rick Perry’s desk.
