Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton SUES San Antonio police chief William McManus and city manager Sheryl Sculley

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against San Antonio police chief William McManus and city manager Sheryl Sculley over an incident that happened late last year.

It relates to a human smuggling case that happened on December 23, 2017.

Paxton accuses Chief William McManus in a lawsuit Friday of violating the law when he refused to turn over migrants in a human smuggling case to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. McManus released the migrants instead.

McManus and several other big-city police chiefs opposed the law. McManus argued his department had no legal authority to hold the migrants and that police released them to Catholic Charities.

The lawsuit claims the city has adopted a policy that circumvents federal immigration enforcement.

Specifically, it says that the department’s policy includes that officers are not to refer people to Immigration and Customs Enforcement unless that person of interest has a federal deportation warrant.

“The policy effectively prohibits SAPD officers from transferring suspected aliens to federal immigration officers, absent federal officials providing

proof of a federal deportation warrant,” the complaint states. “But not all aliens unlawfully present in the United States are subject to deportation warrants. And the federal government has the legal right to apprehend those individuals as well. Similarly, the policy also effectively discourages SAPD officers from contacting or referring individuals to ICE, since SAPD officers ordinarily do not possess the threshold information required by the SAPD Immigration Policy to initiate contact with ICE without contacting ICE in the first place. Thus, it is SAPD’s policy to effectively prohibit SAPD officers from cooperating with federal immigration authorities.”

Paxton’s office claims that Sculley is culpable in the case because of her role as city manager to negotiate and execute contracts with groups like Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Catholic Charities and RAICES.

It says these groups help would-be defendants navigate federal immigration laws.

https://www.ktsa.com/texas-sues-san-antonio-police-under-sanctuary-cities-law/

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“As a result of Ordinance 2017-08-31-0614 and the December 23, 2017 incident, SAPD developed a Communication Protocol for Human Smuggling or Trafficking Incidents,” the suit further claims. “Part of that Protocol requires Chief McManus’s office to notify Catholic Charities and the immigration law firm of any smuggling or trafficking incident so that these agencies can provide translation services, aid, and legal services to suspected felons (suspected illegal aliens).”

State law mandates a local entity may not enact a policy that limits the enforcement of immigration laws.

“The City, SAPD, McManus, and Sculley have a policy of contacting Catholic Charities any time they encounter a smuggling or trafficking scene where

suspected aliens are present and contacting immigration counsel to represent the suspected aliens at the scene,” the case states. “This prohibits and materially limits the enforcement of immigration laws. In addition, the City, SAPD, McManus, and Sculley have demonstrated a pattern or practice of ignoring potential human smuggling incidents involving individuals smuggled in trailers.”

The city calls this all a political game from Austin.

“While we need time to review the complaint, we are fully confident that neither the City nor Chief McManus violated the applicable provisions of SB 4,” City Attorney Andy Segovia said. “The Attorney General’s characterizations of what happened that day are clearly aimed at furthering a political agenda. The City has a long history of cooperating with federal authorities and we will continue to do so. The City’s process for handling human smuggling/trafficking incidents was created in coordination with the federal government, and federal officials have not taken issue with how we are handling immigration issues.”

“I fully support the actions taken by SAPD Police Chief William McManus and the City of San Antonio last December,” city councilman Roberto Trevino said in a statement. “And, while it is quite disappointing that embattled State Attorney General Ken Paxton has elected to further his political agenda, nobody should feel surprised. I am confident the legal process will confirm the Chief McManus and the City of San Antonio have not violated the germane sections of SB4.“

Police union boss Mike Helle called this lawsuit a victory for the city.

“The decision by the AG to sue Chief McManus and City Manager Sculley totally vindicates the position our organization took earlier this year when we called out the Chief for his brazen disregard of Texas law,” said Mike Helle, President of the San Antonio Police Officers Association. “We said at the time, that the Chief’s action’s violated state law and that he may have very well put lives in danger by releasing unknown illegal aliens into our city.”

https://www.ktsa.com/texas-sues-san-antonio-police-under-sanctuary-cities-law/

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