Dozens of Texas House Democrats have fled their state and are attempting to evade legal efforts to retrieve them by hiding out in three “sanctuary” cities that already refuse to cooperate with federal authorities seeking to detain lawbreakers and send them back home.
More than fifty House Democrats have left Texas in recent days, in order to deny Republicans the quorum needed to conduct business and effect redistricting that could end up providing the GOP with additional seats in the U.S. Congress.
The three cities hosting the Texas Democrats shirking their duties are all self-declared “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens that seek to impede efforts by federal authorities, such as U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), to enforce the nation’s immigration laws:
The Trump Administration has filed lawsuits against Chicago, New York and other anti-immigration law cities over their sanctuary policies and is threatening to withhold $300 million annually from Boston.
Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn has sent a letter asking the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate potential criminal acts, including bribery, and hold accountable legislators who have fled the state in an attempt to stall the legislative process in the Texas House of Representatives:
“I request the FBI’s assistance, as federal resources are necessary to locate the out-of-state Texas legislators who are potentially acting in violation of the law. The FBI has tools to aid state law enforcement when parties cross state lines, including to avoid testifying or fleeing a scene of a crime.”
Indeed, the FBI “may have to” get involved, President Donald Trump said Tuesday, when asked about Cornyn’s request.
Additionally, Texas House Republicans have issued civil arrest warrants for the Democrats who have fled and remain absent from their jobs.
“Texas Department of Public Safety officers are on the streets looking for those Democrat House members to arrest and to take them to the Texas Capitol and hold them there until a quorum is reached,” Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott told Fox News on Tuesday.
Gov. Abbott said his administration is asking officials in the states that are hosting Texas Democrats to work with him to deport the rogue legislators back to their home state:
“The Texas Department of Public Safety is also working with officials in other states to find ways in which we can try to arrest the Democrat members in other states to arrest and bring them back to the state of Texas.”
“Bribery in Texas is a felony. Felony is type of offense that we can issue papers to have these Democrats brought back,” Gov. Abbott explained, addressing reports that the wayward Democrats are being reimbursed by supporters for the fines they incur by remaining off the job. “Another thing, though, that Democrats don’t seem to know and that is: taking or receiving a payment, like they have, to escape or not take a vote, subjects them to forfeiture of their seats.”
Whether or not the sanctuary cities will cooperate with federal authorities remains to be seen, given their propensity to buck federal authority when Republicans are in office.
Boston, for example, has declared itself to be a sanctuary for members of the LGBTQ community, in response to the efforts by Republican-led states and Pres. Trump to protect their citizens from radical Democrats’ promotion of anti-biology gender ideology.
In March, Boston’s city council voted 12-1 to become a LGBTQ sanctuary, in a largely symbolic publicity stunt.