When Austin is Under Attack?
We need every sanctuary city in Texas and the nation to help us stand up and fight back.
On Monday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to cut off state funding to Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez unless she reverses her department’s policy on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Hernandez was elected largely on the strength of her opposition to automatic “immigration holds”, which federal laws leave at the discretion of county jails. Detainers request that individuals be held for an additional 48 hours — even in the absence of warrant or charge — while ICE investigates the possibility of transfer to federal custody for deportation. ICE detainers have been criticized by immigrant rights groups, the courts, and law enforcement agents alike for violating the Fourth Amendment while heightening fear and distrust, all on the dime of local agencies. Hernandez’s policy is not only legal, it was a central issue for local voters, and her stance was shared in the platform of nearly every candidate in last year’s race. Travis County resoundingly voted to be a sanctuary county and further Austin’s commitment as a sanctuary city.
On Wednesday, Gov. Abbott threatened to introduce legislation that would “remove from office any officeholder who promotes sanctuary cities”. His proposal is a direct assault on the democratic process of local governments, a direct assault on the First Amendment rights of officials and their ability to have discussions and debates that reflect their constituencies, and a direct assault on the duly elected Mayor and City Council of Austin, Texas.
Gov. Abbott’s threats would seem plainly unconstitutional and plainly laughable if we were still living in plain times. But today, we are not. Yesterday, Vox published four leaked drafts of executive orders on immigration. Their contents will almost surely be making national headlines as soon as Trump drags his little pen across them, but in short, they include: termination of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals’ protections for those who came to the US as children, suspension of immigration from seven nations including Syria and Iraq, overarching constriction of legal immigration processes, and the decimation of public benefits for immigrants including those arriving as refugees.
Gov. Abbott’s threat to remove elected city governments and install state autocrats would seem like a dystopian fiction only if we hadn’t long been witnessing that dystopia in Flint, Michigan. Michigan’s “emergency managers” at least operated under some faux-benevolent double-speak of trying to solve “fiscal crisis”. Abbott’s thrown the guile by the wayside. He and his cronies are proposing to usurp the will of prosperous cities with the intent to operate them specifically on an agenda of hate and isolation. Never mind that the “Texas Miracle” state officials are so proud of is built on the backs of the very same hardworking immigrant families that Abbott and Trump seek to terrorize, not to mention the thriving economies of these very cities.
It may be hard to see from out in those blue states, but the big cities of Texas did not elect Donald Trump. He lost in Houston’s Harris County, he made no stand in San Antonio’s Bexar County, he got trampled in Dallas County, and he fell about 40 points short here in Travis County, even though every Austinite knows their presidential vote is bound to get swallowed like a tallboy of Lone Star at the Electoral College. Texas cities don’t want Trump or his xenophobic policies, so Gov. Abbott is launching a proxy war for Trump against Texas cities.
Austin is the easy target for Abbott. Aside from the local sheriff, we’ve got a City Council — an at-large mayor and ten district representatives — who have largely been outspoken in rejecting Trumpism and its hateful rhetoric. We’ve long been, as Rick Perry put it, “the blueberry in the tomato soup” of state politics, but it’s really not just us. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the United States and maybe even the very most, filled with folks from all over the globe. San Antonio has a legendary yet richly complicated history that cannot be ignored when we talk about the Mexican border and the European immigrants who pushed it south. I don’t know whole lot about Dallas, but I know it looks less and less like the Dallas my mom watched every day.
Point is, they’ve got the crosshairs on Austin now, but Abbott and Trump and their ugly kind ain’t gonna stop here. If they can kick over our local democracy and declare open season on our friends and neighbors, then no other place in Texas will be safe from either Abbott or Trump. If you know that immigrant rights are human rights, it’s time for some of that stand up, fight back.
In Austin, we need to be prepared to defend our city. DREAMER youth who have known no other nation, refugees, and undocumented workers are all facing clear and present danger that will put the rest of us and our safety pins to the test. Our City Council needs to know we’ll be ready to march straight downtown if the shit hits the fan and the state dares to attempt a municipal coup. If you’re in Houston or Dallas or San Antonio, tell your city to loudly remind the Texas Lege that Austin ain’t the only sanctuary and they ain’t gonna like working this hard. And wherever you are, if you’re looking for a good time, invite some friends over, turn on the speaker phone, and call 512–463–2000 and remind Gov. Abbott that havin’ fun while freedom fightin’ must be one of those lunatic Texas traits we get from the water.
Y’all, there’ll be wins and losses, but don’t forget for one second that we know how to put up one hell of a fight.
