Valley Interfaith Priest Concerned That SB4 Can Empower Cartels
Following a press conference in which leaders of the Texas IAF Network of Organizations joined the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops to oppose the anti-sanctuary cities bill, SB4, Fr. Kevin Collins of St. Eugene's de Mazenod Catholic Church and Valley Interfaith in Brownsville had more to say.
"If you cannot trust the police, who can you turn to?" Collins argues that one unintended consequence of SB4 becoming a law is that organized crime will become more powerful if community policing is diminished by lack of trust.
Read moreTexas IAF Network Joins Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops in Stand Against Anti-Immigrant Bill SB4
Said Bishop Joe Vásquez, on behalf of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, "We reject the premise that persons who are merely suspected of being undocumented immigrants should be rounded up by state and local police agents."
"This bill requires local police and sheriff's deputies to enforce federal immigration laws as if their job of maintaining public order and the public safety weren't difficult enough as it is," said John Elford, senior pastor of University United Methodist Church and member of Austin Interfaith.
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