Did an alleged Austin sanctuary policy cost a life?

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The Austin American-Statesman reported several days ago that a family is upset with what it claims is an unofficial police department policy in Austin:

Humberto Garcia thinks that his 18-year-old daughter, who was brutally murdered in his family’s North Austin home last year, would still be alive if Austin police aggressively enforced immigration laws.

Now Garcia and his wife are suing the City of Austin, Police Chief Stan Knee and Assistant Chief Rudy Landeros in federal court, claiming the city has a policy against reporting undocumented immigrants that should be overturned. The city’s lawyer denies such a policy exists.

About two years before he killed Jenny Garcia Hayden in January 2004, David Diaz Morales had been investigated by Austin police on suspicion that he molested a child. Diaz, 22, wasn’t arrested at the time, but Hayden’s father thinks Austin police knew Diaz was a Mexican citizen in the country illegally and should have called immigration agents to deport him.

In July, Diaz admitted in state District Court that he broke into the Garcia family’s Whispering Valley Drive house and killed Jenny, his former IHOP co-worker, with a butcher knife. With his plea he avoided facing the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison for murder and 20 years for burglary. Diaz won’t be eligible for parole until he’s served 50 years.

“What happened (to Jenny) happened because he was illegally in the country and was not deported,” Garcia said.

The family’s lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Austin, claims that the city, including the Police Department, has an illegal “sanctuary city” policy that prevents or significantly restricts employees from communicating with federal authorities about the immigration status of people in Austin.

We don’t know about Austin, but Houston does have an official sanctuary policy towards illegal aliens, and a mayor and police chief who defend it by asserting that immigration is a problem for the feds, not the city of Houston. While it’s not clear that immigration should be the top priority for Houston cops, it’s also not clear why they should be forbidden from enforcing federal law.


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