Reckless Endangerment — Travis County Sheriff’s Office v ICE

Bit early in the ATX, but the Big Red Car has to tell you about the reckless behavior of our Travis County Sheriff, Sally Hernandez as it relates to ICE and not honoring detainers. Travis County is the home county of the city of Austin By God Texas. Austin is sometimes referred to as The People’s Republic of Austin.

On 1 February 2017, Sheriff Hernandez announced her new policy of not cooperating with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as it relates to honoring certain (almost all) detainer requests.

This is on the forward edge of the battle area between the Federal government’s objective of deporting criminal aliens, thereby Making American Safe Again (couldn’t resist, sorry), and the sanctuary city movement.

Already, the State of Texas (in the person of Governor Greg Abbott) has taken action against Travis County and canceled state grants for veterans (amongst other worthy endeavors) to the tune of $1,500,000. Seems a small amount, but it is meaningful if you are one of those veterans impacted. [Full Disclosure: The Boss is a veteran and this really pisses him off.]

Bottom line: Our Sheriff is releasing criminals into Travis County. These criminals (charged with and/0r convicted of serious crimes)  would, otherwise, be deported to their country of origin.  Sheriff Hernandez’s actions, in failing to cooperate with ICE, are recklessly endangering the safety of Travis County citizens and Texans, in general.

History

Prior to the election of Sheriff Hernandez, her predecessor, Sheriff Greg Hamilton, cooperated with ICE in the detention of criminals. Let’s be clear. Once upon a time, Travis County was part of the United States and Texas.

ICE would issue a detainer request and the Travis County Sheriff’s Office would detain these criminals. ICE would take control of these criminals and deport them.

In this manner, the citizens of Travis County were protected from criminals. This, after all, is the fundamental mission of law enforcement and the Travis County Sheriff is a law enforcement officer.

Detainers

A detainer request is an administrative request from ICE to a local law enforcement organization to “detain” a criminal (charged or convicted) until ICE can show up to take possession of the criminal. This may preclude the criminal being allowed out on bond, which is a good thing.

ICE enjoys cooperation from almost all law enforcement entities except for those, like Travis County, who have boldly entitled themselves as “sanctuary” entities and who are openly failing to cooperate with the Federal government in its mission of enforcing our borders, ensuring the public safety, and deporting illegal criminals.

TCSO Policy

Sheriff Hernandez announced her “new” policy effective 1 February 2017. She will use the power of her office to detain only murderers, aggravated assailants, and human traffickers. It is not clear as to how she conjured up that list. She, apparently, does not answer to anyone and has no basis in law — she is a law enforcement officer — to issue such a policy.

She will NOT detain:

Kidnappers,
Rapists (should fall under the classification of “aggravated assaults”),
Drug dealers,
Financial fraudsters,
Sexual assailants who take carnal knowledge of minors,
Sexual deviants who expose themselves to minors,
Sexual predators against children (fondlers),
Robbers,
Burglars (forced or unforced entry),
Aggravated assailants — with or without weapons (which seems to be against her own stated policy),
Drug possessors of all kinds (marijuana, cocaine, heroin),
Hit & runners,
Felons fleeing to avoid prosecution,
Criminals resisting arrest,
Domestic violence perpetrators, and,
DUIs.

This should catch one’s attention. Are you OK with, say, kidnappers and rapists being released back into Travis County? Big Red Car is not.

Remember, even before this list is made, all of the perps involved are in the country illegally. They are criminals who have a second offense. In many instances, they are not just charged with a crime, they have been convicted and have served their sentence. CRIMINALS.

Sheriff Hernandez justified her unique policy saying she believes her policy is “in line with the values of my constituents.”

In a particularly bizarre utterance, Sheriff Hernandez indicated she would comply with a law if it were passed by the Texas Legislature and the law compelled her to cooperate. Sheriff Hernandez, apparently, wants the Legislature to tell her personally to comply with Federal requests to rid our county of criminals — that strike anyone else as a bit odd?

Why, Big Red Car?

The “why” of it is very simple. Sheriff Hernandez believes her views on immigration are superior to those of the Federal government, the State of Texas and are more important than the safety of the citizens of Travis County.

She thinks she is above the law. She does not care about the financial impact on veterans her actions have caused. She just doesn’t care about anything other than protecting criminals from deportation. She believes she can do this because she has the support of the County Commissioners Court, her bosses.

Let’s be clear. The sanctuary city movement is unlawful. It is a political initiative to re-write the immigration laws of the United States. It is the manifestation of the political ego of its leaders. Did I mention that Sheriff Hernandez is a Democrat?

Support

Sheriff Sally Hernandez is not alone in her flaunting of the law and her failure to cooperate with the Federal government in the elimination of illegal criminals from amongst our communities.

She is supported by the likes of men such as David Escamilla, our County Attorney, who will treat you to a smokescreen of baloney about arrest warrants and court orders and due process and the flaws with everything related to detainers. [Remember to bring eye drops, cause the smoke will definitely get in your eyes.]

His views were not dispositive of the conduct of the prior Sheriff. It is a new found passion for the County Attorney.

One of the primary duties of the County Attorney is to advise the County Commissioners Court as to their official duties.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

ICE was created in 2003 by the merger of parts of the US Customs Service and the US Immigration and Naturalization Service. They employ more than 20,000 workers and have 400 offices throughout the US and 46 foreign countries.

They have the primary responsibility to control the US borders, to operate the customs system, to oversee physical trade at the border, and to oversee immigration to ensure homeland security and public safety.

Right now, the Trump administration has issued guidance to rid the US of criminals who also are illegally in the country. Travis County is flaunting that directive and failing to adhere to the law while making the important mission of ICE infinitely more difficult.

You have to wonder whose side the Travis County Sheriff’s Office is on in the confrontation between good and evil.

Consequences

The easiest consequence to understand is that Sheriff Hernandez is flooding our community with criminals. Simple to understand, no?

Sheriff Hernandez has her own immigration policy and it will recklessly endanger YOU. Get rid of bad guys? Nah, that’s not going to happen because Sheriff Hernandez doesn’t think that’s a good idea.

The State of Texas legislature is considering Senate Bill 4 (already passed by the Senate and awaiting action in the House) which would create penalties up to removing people, such as Sheriff Hernandez, from office. It will also impact state financial support.

The Trump administration intends to take similar action at the Federal level and to starve sanctuary entities of Federal assistance.

Veterans, and other beneficiaries of lost state funding will be unfavorably impacted. Obviously, nobody gives a damn about our veterans except on Veterans Day.

Call to action

So, dear reader, what can you do?

Write a letter to Sheriff Sally Hernandez and County Attorney and the County Commissioners Court to express your views.

Sheriff Sally Hernandez
Criminal Justice Center
509 West 11th Street, 1st Floor
(512) 854-9033

County Attorney David Escamilla
PO Box 1748
Austin, Texas 78767
512-854-9415

County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, Precinct One Jeff Travillion, Precinct Two Brigid Shea, Precinct Three Gerald Daugherty, Precinct Four Margaret Gomez
PO Box 1748
Austin, Texas 78767
512-854-9020

In the meantime, keep your guard up in Travis County because your Sheriff is recklessly endangering your life by her policy.

But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car. Be good to yourselves. cropped-LTFD-illust_300.png

 

 

10 thoughts on “Reckless Endangerment — Travis County Sheriff’s Office v ICE

  1. I often hear that the more immigrants were deported during the Obama years. If this is true, what was the basis for selecting who would be deported. Surely criminals should have been on that list. So my question is: were detainers used by ICE during the Obama years? Are we just now choosing to ignore laws because of Trump or were these laws ignored then as well?

    • .
      During the Obama admin, they began to cook the books. They would count as “deportees” those who were stopped at the border and pushed back. In the Bush admin, these illegal aliens were not counted as deportees because they hadn’t actually entered the US.

      The Obama administration did this for the reason you have identified — the numbers.

      The Obama admin allowed a great number of criminals to remain in the country by scheduling hearings and then releasing them to return to court when their hearing date came up.

      Guess what? Someone who breaks into the country — thereby breaking the law — NOT show up for a scheduled court appearance. Surprised?

      There is no question that the election of Pres Trump has exacerbated the entire “sanctuary city” lawlessness.

      Sheriff Hernandez’s predecessor, Sheriff Greg Hamilton (former QB at Texas State), honored all ICE detainer requests.

      Why would a sworn peace officer, a member of law enforcement, not honor a detainer request on a criminal? Why?

      This is simply lawless behavior on the part of Sheriff Hernandez and Cty Atty Escamilla. It is lawless.

      BRC
      https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

  2. Obama set a horrible precedent for selective enforcement of law that encouraged this kind of reckless behavior. Trump should turn the tide back towards a rule of law.

    • > Obama set a horrible precedent

      And apparently a LOT of people liked it, lined up behind it, got used to it, accepted it, and have been depending on it. So, yup, have to turn this stuff around. Maybe it’s like some highway used for commuting where people were all used to driving 80 MPH but now need to get back to the posted 65 or plus 10 for 75. So, have some police out there stopping people, and the word will get out. Or have some police driving the route at 65 to remind people. Now that we have “extreme vetting” to keep the dirt bags out and are rapidly pushing out the dirt bags already here, the word will get out and people will realize that the law is being enforced, won’t seriously object to that, and will calm down. But just for now, could get marches of thousands of people basically claiming that we should have massive violations of our laws long on the books.

      • Yeah, a horrible precedent alright. Bigger than that, is the fact that housing illegals at the expense of American citizens is now a core value of the democrats. One would think that our country is running a surplus or something given their generosity. It’s sad to see a CA style sheriff bringing her game to TX. For her to have even been elected makes me wonder if TX will turn blue next election cycle.

        • For your

          Yeah, a horrible precedent alright. Bigger than that, is the fact that housing illegals at the expense of American citizens is now a core value of the democrats.

          Yes, the Dem strategy, apparently all the way back at least to some Ted Kennedy work, has been, to win elections, import dependent voters.

          Recently at

          http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/22/ann-coulter-now-hit-full-crazy/

          Ann Coulter wrote on immigration with in part

          I can’t help but notice that the Third Worlders aren’t moving to liberals’ neighborhoods.

          and this adds to your comment I quoted.

          Also there, Coulter wrote in part

          After nearly 1 million Rwandans were murdered by other Rwandans in 1994, our government asked itself: Why not bring more of this fascinating Rwandan culture to America? Ten thousand of them poured in. So far, nearly 400 have been convicted in the United States of lying on visa applications about their role in the genocide.

          and here she puts more strikingly and better some of what I tried to say in my post in this thread at

          https://themusingsofthebigredcar.com/reckless-endangerment-travis-county-sheriffs-office/#comment-3217355899

          Gee “… this fascinating Rwandan culture ….”.

          So, as I did, she mentions “culture”.

          The dominant culture of the US is European — Eastern, Central, and Western — from Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, likely the Baltics, Russia with more from the Balkans, and Greece.

          So, right, I grew up in Memphis, and they were still fighting the Civil War. I had a good career going in and near DC in applied math and computing and then went back to Memphis to join FedEx — Memphis was still fighting the Civil War. As I understand it there now, all the housing for the Whites is in organized legal entities designed to keep out the Blacks — so they are still fighting the Civil War.

          Mom was from Columbus, OH, and Dad, a little south of Buffalo, NY, and they wanted nothing to do with that war stuff. Neither did I, and I got out of there ASAP.

          Well, the Civil Rights Movement raised awareness of the plight of the Blacks in the US South and generated sympathy and efforts to correct the situation.

          But apparently since then there has been some deliberately exploitive extrapolation to create a moral norm:

          If any person with black or brown skin suffers, then the people with white skin are to blame. Moreover, the culture of the Whites is too narrow, and all the other cultures should be included.

          Maybe some Democrats understand just why the Whites of the US and Europe are to blame for the suffering of the cultures of Zaire, Uganda, Borneo, etc., but I don’t.

          So, with this moral norm, the Democrats see a way to a majority at the ballot box. A lot of those Democrats just want power for their own traditional selfish reasons and are, with this moral norm, willing to stick it to the rest of White culture and, in particular, US society to achieve their selfish ends. The EU leaders have taken this moral norm hook, line, and sinker.

          After eight years of Obama, there is a lot of entrenched interest in the extrapolations of this moral norm and associated political correctness.

          Since 9/11 and Bush 43, we have been pressured by political correctness to accept that Islam is a “peaceful religion”: Well, in fact, to a large extent, it is not just a religion and not at all peaceful. More accurately, Islam is a closed, medieval, totalitarian culture that is devoted to taking over the rest of the world and killing off all the infidels, that is, everyone else. That is exactly the situation in ISIS, Iran, Afghanistan, and no doubt more.

          But, with the moral norm and political correctness, we are pushed to regard Islam as a peaceful religion and admit Muslims to the US and treat them as peaceful and willing to assimilate until proven otherwise. Well, by now for far too many Muslims even just for our basic safety we are awash in solid proof otherwise.

          And, yes, we are asleep: Far too many Muslims would ASAP deploy a WMD in a major US city. Of course, there was a good presentation on the danger by Newt Gingrich at the last Republican National Convention with an introduction by Callista Gingrich at

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BV8vGzmsos

          Alas, there Newt repeats that claim that the “vast majority” of Muslims are peaceful. But essentially all the Muslim leadership of Isis, Iran, Afghanistan and more are devoted to “Death to America”.

          With political correctness and the moral norm, we are devoted to a suicide pact with the violent parts of Islam. E.g., we are leaving ourselves nearly wide open to multiple WMD attacks.

          Not nearly new is the idea that US immigration should be based on merit. For the sake of the US and its citizens, we should stay with that idea. And the US has no obligation to ignore that a Muslim is a follower of Islam and, thus, with much higher probability than otherwise, devoted to death to America — no joke, not a joke at all, no exaggeration, not at all.

    • .
      The selective enforcement had more than one negative impact. Not only did it allow a great number of illegal immigrants — low skill, low wage expectation workers, if they worked at all — into the country, but it also diminished the general respect for the rule of law as if one only had to adhere to those laws which were found palatable.

      I am convinced that much of what ails our country today is the result of the debate focused around — “Hey, is this a law we “want” to obey or should be just blow this one off?”

      This shows up in a seemingly unrelated area such as the safeguarding of classified material which is apparently completely voluntary where once upon a time one went to jail solely based o the reality of the situation without regard to one’s motivations.

      BRC
      https://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

  3. I have to suspect that 60+% the voters of the city of Austin could get their Sheriff back on track in a fraction of the time interval of a milli-micro-nano-pico second — if and only if they wanted to. Since that time interval is now up, I have to suspect that 60% of the voters are willing to tolerate what the Sheriff is doing.

    Why? Some people like the open borders immigration policy.

    Why? The old explanation was that the Democrats wanted the immigrants here to vote but not work, and the Republicans wanted them here to work but not vote. Then people who want the open borders policy will try to get others to go along for whatever reasons, with whatever techniques, seem to work. E.g., might say that the immigrants are suffering and that they are, actually, good people, could have better lives in the US, and that, thus, the US should let/help them come and stay here — people are free to say such things.

    Yes, I know that the flood of migrants from south of the US border are from open sewer countries. Why the open sewers? Since a lot of those countries are awash in useful and valuable natural resources, there must be some other reason. Another reason? I’m reminded of the story that Napoleon took a look at Spain and decided that it wasn’t worth invading. So, maybe somehow the problem south of the border is something about Spanish culture.

    I confess: I have some familiarity with English, German, French, and Italian culture, e.g., food, music, science, math, engineering, but somehow know next to nothing about Spanish (Balkan, Turkish, Arabian, African, South Asian, Indian, Pakistani, Asian) culture.
    Yes, mostly the Islamic immigrants now flooding into the EU are also from open sewer countries.

    There is an old remark: “You can take the man out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the man.” Applying that remark in this case, if the US imports a lot of people from open sewer countries, then the US will move closer to being an open sewer.

    Yes, yes, I know: Since the Pilgrims, a lot of people have come to the US and done well, e.g., created the one of the best countries in the world. But the countries nearly all those immigrants came from — England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, Russia — are not open sewers now and apparently comparatively were not open sewers then. In comparison, south of the US border and in the Islamic countries are open sewers now and no doubt comparatively were also open sewers then.

    There’s another argument: Notice that knowing the English language reasonably well involves knowing ballpark 80,000 words. So, how many words learned per day is that by, say, age 20? And may I have the arithmetic, please?

    80,000 / ( 20 * 365 ) = 11

    So, 11 words a day. Lesson: There was a LOT of work to learn the English language.

    There is another point: There is a lot more lessons to (1) learning the values and norms of a family, (2) becoming socialized and socially acceptable in a community, and (3) becoming a good citizen in a country than just those 80,000 words in the English language. E.g., some of the lessons are (A) using force on a female is a very serious transgression; (B) harassing a female is forbidden and quickly becomes very serious if continued; (C) do not attack others with knives, guns, or other weapons; (D) do not steal; (E) do not settle disputes with violence; (F) have high respect for learning, hard work, and accomplishment; (G) the US democracy is important; (H) being a citizen of the US is a great privilege; (J) patriotism is very important. No one from an open sewer country who does not know (1)-(3) for good US families or (A)-(J) for good US citizens can learn these lessons just from an hour of wet feet from the Rio Grande River or landing at JFK Airport. If a lot of those people in open sewer countries were super bright and really good at (1)-(3) and (A)-(J), then their countries would not be open sewers and they would not be coming here.

    Lesson: Bring in a lot of people from open sewer countries, and the US will become closer to the open sewers those people came from.

    The citizens of Austin, San Francisco, NYC, etc. need to be good US citizens, wake up, pay attention, get informed, and stop the open borders nonsense.

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