AUSTIN — (AP) The Texas House has given final approval to a strict ban on “sanctuary cities” in the country’s second-largest state.
The bill seeks to empower police to enforce federal immigration law against anyone they detain, not just arrest, and was first approved by the GOP-controlled chamber around 3 a.m. Thursday.
It also threatens to jail police chiefs and sheriffs who refuse to do so. Final passage came in the late afternoon.
A similar proposal already cleared the Texas Senate. It lets Texas withhold funding from local governments for acting as sanctuary cities, even as the Trump administration’s efforts to do so nationally have been blocked in federal court.
Other Republican-controlled states have embraced similar polices, but Texas would be the first where police chiefs and sheriffs could potentially by jailed.
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