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About a month before Senate Bill 4 makes it a state crime to enter Texas illegally, Fort Bend County’s Sheriff’s Office said it will not prioritize enforcement of the law if it goes into effect in March.
The Fort Bend County’s Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Tuesday that it “does not see the need to detain any person for the purpose of determining their immigration status or enforcing federal immigration laws.”
Gov. Greg Abbott and other proponents of the law, which was passed by the legislature in November and signed by Abbott in December, say that SB 4 is necessary to keep Texans safe and fend off a border “invasion.” But law enforcement across the state has said the law will harm public safety by damaging trust with immigrant communities and lead to decreased crime reporting. Immigrant rights organizations are already reporting heightened fear among Houston’s immigrants, some who are even considering leaving the state.
The law faces legal challenges by the Department of Justice and civil rights organizations such as the ACLU of Texas, which allege the law is unconstitutional because it is preempted by federal law and will lead to racial profiling.
Fort Bend is just the latest county to back off from strict SB 4 enforcement. In the Tuesday statement, the Fort Bend’s Sheriff’s Office said that “justice is blind means that race or ethnicity is not a reason to stop anyone on that basis alone.” However, the sheriff’s office said it would still “cooperate with federal immigration authorities” in cases where a person is arrested for another crime.
Houston Police Officer’s Union President Doug Griffith previously told the Houston Landing that carrying out immigration enforcement is “not their job.” Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne has said that enforcing the law is not a priority for his office.
“We really don’t want to be going out into the community and trying to enforce illegal immigration on honest law-abiding people that are just looking for a better life,” Hawthorne said.
The Landing reached out to the Houston Police Department and the sheriff’s departments of Harris, Liberty, Waller, Montgomery, Galveston, and Brazoria about their position on SB 4, but did not receive a response before publication.
Unless an injunction is issued, SB 4 is slated to go into effect in early March.
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