Anatomy Of A Feud: Texas Governor, Travis County Sheriff At Odds Amid Growing Immigration Fight

AUSTIN, TX — If one studies the website for the Travis County Sheriff's Office, one sees a portal that logs so-called "detainers" honored at the request of the U.S. Immigration, Customs and Enforcement agency dedicated, among other things, to deporting undocumented immigrants.

In a voluntary move, cities are given the opportunity of cooperating with ICE to detain people suspected of being undocumented who are ensnared for transgressions as minimal as misdemeanors. Former Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton was among the most zealous ICE partners at the local level, the brisk pace of his deputies' honoring of ICE detainers helping to make Austin emerge as one of the nation's most prolific participants.

At the time, the county-ICE cooperative effort nationally was known as Secure Communities, which John Morton of ICE once called "...the future of immigration enforcement" given its focus on devoting "...resources on identifying and removing the most serious criminal offenders first and foremost."

But that grand vision didn't come to pass. Instead, immigrant advocates protested loudly that the program targeted undocumented immigrants — not just from nearby Mexico but Asia, Africa and other countries — busted for minor legal scrapes yet placed on 24- to 72-hour holds at local prisons to give ICE agents plenty of time to come fetch them and begin deportation proceedings.

In Travis County, the program as practiced by Hamilton broke families apart when family patriarchs were deported, leaving their families behind to fend for themselves as best they could. The outcry over the program — not just in Travis County but nationwide — and its inherent risk of racial/ethnic profiling soon led to its dismantling, replaced by the more relaxed Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) the took effect in July 2015.

As ICE officials noted at the time, PEP would focus not on misdemeanants who happened to be undocumented, but the hardened criminal element from those communities, leaving those committing minor infractions to the magistrate courts. But then, Donald Trump — whose focus on deportations while on the stump resonated powerfully with his base — became president. By January 25, he reinstated Secure Communities by executive order.

Which brings us to today. Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez — elected with some 60 percent of the vote against a Republican challenger — won largely on a pledge to exercise a more nuanced approach to immigration enforcement focused not on blanket targeting of those who might be undocumented but in rooting out those accused of hard crimes (aggravated sexual assault, murder, human trafficking) to hand over to ICE for deportation.

But given the new currency placed on across-the-board deportations in the rise of Trump, conservative Gov. Greg Abbott as recently upped his call for mass deportations at the local level. In his recent "state of the state" address, Abbott made the elimination of so-called sanctuary cities or counties a top priority, and "emergency item," as he put it. As exclamation point to this mission, he cut off $1.5 million in grants on which county agencies annually rely despite the fact the community programs they offer are unrelated to law enforcement.

Which then brings us to the Travis County sheriff's office again. On the website are current ICE detainers the office has honored under Hernandez's tenure, despite her more nuanced (some might say softened) approach to local immigration enforcement. To the left of the page, under the heading "Inmate & Jail Info" there is an entry titled "ICE Listings," showing detainees held on detainers for crimes even less severe than what the sheriff indicated would be her focus.

The most recent entry from Feb. 2 shows compliance in honoring ICE detainers, despite the picture Abbott and his supporters have painted of "sanctuary" being given to criminals in Travis County. Through that portal, one sees the process of removing hardened, undocumented residents from the general population and on the path to deportation:

• Booked on Feb. 2, Juan Lopez, 46, from Mexico, held on an ICE detainer given aggravated sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping charges filed against him.
• Feb. 1, Alexi Gonzalez Tellez, 24, from Mexico, held for ICE retrieval over a marijuana possession charge.
• Edwin Joel Perdomo, 24, from Honduras, on detainer for ICE following charges of marijuana possession and related paraphernalia plus traffic offenses as of Feb. 1.
• Christopher Diaz Rogel, 18, of Mexico, on ICE hold over DWI effective Feb. 1.
• Jesus Rivera Arvizu, 37, held for driving while intoxicated while a child was in the car and non-payment of child support, also on Feb. 1.

There are numerous such entries with dozens of detainees listed, all logged three days before Hernandez was sworn in as sheriff on Jan. 1.

At a recent press conference staged by Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt in response to the governor's cuts to programs she oversees, Patch had the opportunity to ask the sheriff if those ICE detainers were current (not holdovers from Hamilton's tenure). She replied they were, an assertion buttressed by accompanying notations on each entry on specific dates when the detainers were honored.

But that's seemingly not good enough for Abbott, who is currently exploring the idea of crafting legislation to have her removed from office for what he views as non-compliance with immigration laws.

On Friday, the sheriff's office tallied up the number of detainers honored or rejected on Hernandez's watch. Previously, she has stated she would only honor such requests if accompanied by a court order or judicial warrant. All told, 191 ICE hold requests have been declined of those received before Feb. 1 and 30 accepted, according to the sheriff's office via an email to Patch.

That's not non-compliance, as some might argue, but not zealous participation with ICE either. And therein lies the rub, and, likely, never the twain shall meet. For both Abbott and Hernandez have stood firm on their stated positions, and the controversy and its attendant divisiveness shows no signs of letting up anytime soon.

>>> Photo of Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez via sheriff's office, official photo of Gov. Greg Abbott via State of Texas