A few hours after San Antonio officials announced nine people died in what they called a human trafficking crime, the Texas lieutenant governor took the tragedy as an opportunity to congratulate himself and demonize cities with sanctuary policies.
“Today’s tragedy is why I made passing Senate Bill 4 to ban sanctuary cities — which is now law — a top priority,” Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick wrote in a Facebook post published Sunday evening.
The death count has since risen to 10 victims and seven San Antonio area hospitals took in 20 survivors who were in extremely critical or serious condition, according to San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood.
In his Facebook post, Patrick claimed sanctuary cities “enable human smugglers.” In reality, most cities with sanctuary policies just refuse to honor federal requests for the transfer of custody of immigrants. Several federal and state courts have found key aspects of these immigration detainers unconstitutional. Just this week, a Massachusetts state court ruled retainer requests are not valid in the state.