Bill requiring that Texas sheriffs work with federal immigration authorities heads to governor’s desk

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Texas would further cement its role in enforcing immigration laws under a bill the state Legislature sent to the governor Sunday that would require most sheriffs to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gov. Greg Abbott has signaled support for such an idea, and President Donald Trump — whose administration could receive a big personnel boost for its mass deportation ambitions if Texas joins the effort — endorsed the proposed law Friday as state lawmakers worked on the latest compromise.

The version of Senate Bill 8 that lawmakers ultimately voted to send to the governor would require sheriffs who run or contract out operations of a jail to request and enter agreements with ICE under a federal law that lets ICE extend limited immigration authority to local law enforcement officers. The bill would cover approximately 234 of the state’s 254 counties, according to a bill author.

Over the weekend, SB 8 received strong condemnation from some Democrats, high praise from immigration hardliners who had pushed all legislative session for a more sweeping bill, and ultimately a final green light from the GOP-dominated Legislature: The Senate approved the bill 20-11 and the House 89-52.

“It's not just about securing the border, it's about public safety,” Rep. David Spiller, a Jacksboro Republican who carried the bill in the House, said Sunday after the House vote. “The focus previously before President Trump got back in office was mainly [to] secure the border. That's being done, but we still have to deal with what's happened over the past four years — and quite frankly the years before that — so the focus is still the same but it's slightly directed more toward just a public safety concern.”

The federal government offers three kinds of partnerships, known as 287(g) agreements, that local authorities can enter with ICE. SB 8 previously required sheriffs only to enter into agreements involving serving administrative warrants in jails. The final version allows sheriffs to request any of the three agreements, including one that lets ICE authorize local officers to question people about their immigration status while doing their daily policing in the field. The Trump administration revived that program after it fell into disuse due to allegations that it led to racial profiling.

Seventy-three law enforcement agencies in the state already have 287(g) agreements with ICE — including the state National Guard and the Texas Attorney General’s office, according to statistics published by ICE. Most of the agreements are for the two jail programs.

Before the votes in each chamber, Democrats raised concerns that SB 8 will erode immigrant communities’ trust in law enforcement, result in racial profiling by law enforcement and place a financial burden on counties that have long complained that such agreements add new responsibilities for already-strapped law enforcement agencies.

Sen. Charles Schwertner, a Georgetown Republican who co-authored the bill with Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, dismissed the worries during the upper chamber’s Saturday debate, arguing in part that voters asked for it.

He also highlighted a grant program under SB 8, expanded under the final version, that would help to offset costs not covered by the federal government and said sheriffs would have discretion to select which program to participate in.

“The people of the United States and of Texas spoke very clearly last November regarding their concerns of illegal immigration and the concerns of criminal illegal aliens doing great harm to communities to Texas cities and counties,” Schwertner told his colleagues. “That's why I filed this bill.”

Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat who is an immigration lawyer, brought up a racial profiling documentary about Texas police pulling over and harassing Black drivers, whose belongings — like cars and jewelry — they would confiscate through forfeiture cases that became a boon for a local government, he said.

“Are you not afraid of the potentiality for racial profiling by police if they see what presumably looks like Mexican or Hispanic people in a truck, that they will not be pulled over simply because of the color of their skin?” he asked Schwertner.

“Senator, our world is not racially blind, color blind,” Schwertner responded. “There are obviously inherent biases of individuals. That said, there are ways to properly train … there is training to address the concerns of racial profiling.”

“Well, I'm glad that you agree with me that racism is still alive and well in this country,” Gutierrez said.

The Trump administration is trying to shorten training for the program, according to Schwertner’s testimony during a Senate panel hearing on the bill in March.

During debate on the House floor, some lawmakers pointed to evidence of racial profiling, most notably by the sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, whose deputies regularly engaged in misconduct that violated the constitutional rights of Latinos stemming from the program, according to a federal probe.

“It is one of the most inhuman models,” state Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, D-San Antonio, said.

SB 8 would become the latest move state lawmakers take to carve out the state’s lane in immigration enforcement. Other states have followed suit by passing similar laws that together could recalibrate states’ role in what was long held by courts to be the federal government’s sole responsibility.

Texas is home to about 11% of immigrants in the United States and an estimated 1.6 million undocumented persons — the second-most in the country after California.

Two years ago the Legislature approved a bill to grant Texas police the authority to arrest people suspected of being in the country illegally. During the Biden administration, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas to stop the measure from going into effect, as did civil rights and advocacy groups.

The incoming Trump administration swiftly dropped the lawsuit, and the state has argued for the dismissal of a related legal challenge, arguing that the Department of Homeland Security and Texas law enforcement are already cooperating to enforce federal immigration laws.

Before then, the state in 2017 prohibited local government policies that prevent a peace officer from asking about a person's immigration status, targeting municipalities that declared themselves “sanctuary cities” and directed local police not to cooperate with federal immigration officials during Trump’s first term.

“SB 8 will not make our communities safer, but it will force sheriffs to do the work of ICE in support of the federal government’s shameful mass deportation efforts,” Sarah Cruz of the ACLU of Texas said in a statement Sunday. “The legislature should not strip local communities of their ability to make decisions about what keeps them safe.”

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