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Texas Attorney General Seeks Emergency Stay Of SB 4 Decision

Joey Palacios
/
TPR

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking an emergency stay of a San Antonio federal judge’s decision that blocked Texas’ Sanctuary Cities ban from taking effect.  

Paxton filed an appeal of U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia’s decision to block provisions of Texas’ Sanctuary Cities Ban also known as Senate Bill 4, which was set to take effect on Sept. 1.

Marc Rylander is the press secretary for Paxton’s office.

“This injunction has far-reaching public safety consequences.  Senate Bill 4 is wholly valid and the state has every right to prevent its localities from having sanctuary city policies," Rylander says.

The law would prevent local officials from implementing policies that do not honor all federal immigration detainer requests by punishing them with fines, jail time and removal from office.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF’s Celina Moreno is a plaintiffs attorney for the City of San Antonio, which is suing the state over some of SB4’s provisions.  Moreno says allowing the law to take effect would hurt the state while communities across Southeast Texas are still picking up the pieces left by Hurricane Harvey.

“What cities and counties are trying to focus on right now is making sure that public safety is paramount, that people’s lives are rebuilt.  Not playing immigration agents," Moreno says.

Paxton is asking the court to render a ruling within a 48-hour window on whether or not the law should be allowed to go into effect while the court hears oral arguments in the case. 

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Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.