TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas – A Travis County judge has tossed out sections of a lawsuit filed last year against San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, the department and the city by the Texas Attorney General's Office.
The so-called "sanctuary cities lawsuit," filed in Travis County in late November, accuses McManus of limiting the enforcement of immigration laws in December 2017 when he decided to release 12 suspected undocumented immigrants found inside a tractor-trailer on the East Side, instead of handing them over to federal immigration officials.
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Following a hearing on the motion in late May, a Travis County District judge on July 2 dismissed some of the claims from the original suit.
Attorneys for the city argued that not only did the original suit lack merit, but its claims were barred because the incident took place while the enforcement of Senate Bill 4 had been temporarily halted by a San Antonio federal judge.
SB 4, passed by the Texas Legislature in 2017, remains mostly in effect following a federal appeals court ruling in March 2018.
The law, which attempts to ban sanctuary cities in Texas, requires law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration officials, specifically when it pertains to arrested and lawfully detained individuals.
Marc Rylander, spokesman for the attorney general's office, released the following statement Thursday via email:
We respectfully disagree with the trial court's ruling. A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit dissolved all aspects of the injunction against Senate Bill 4 applicable in this case. None of the parties dispute that point. Because the federal trial court's injunction was overturned, it cannot prohibit the state of Texas from enforcing SB 4 during the period it was wrongly enjoined. Otherwise, litigants could sue over a law they disagree with and get a free pass even if the law is ultimately upheld by the courts. Here, it is critical that the state be allowed to enforce SB 4, which protects the cooperative relationship between law enforcement and immigration officials.
Massive legal fees
A Defenders investigation in April revealed that in the first several months after the AG's office filed the suit, the city was billed more than $258,725 by the Austin-based law firm it hired to represent it, McManus and SAPD.
City Attorney Andy Segovia said during a previous interview that it could take a year to 18 months from the date the suit was filed to get a resolution in court.