“They Make Bond, They Get Out” Texas Sheriff Defies Abbott, Won’t Turn Over Illegals to ICE

Texas Sheriff hosts meeting providing illegal aliens advice and reassurance.

During his State of the State address, Texas Governor Greg Abbott stated that when illegal immigrants are arrested, they should be considered a flight risk and turned over to ICE.

A few days later, Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith hosted an “immigration panel” where he provided reassurance to illegal aliens and their lawyers that he would not be making much effort to arrest them, even suggesting that illegal aliens avoid counties where laws are enforced more seriously.

Despite the direct order from our Governor and Americans voting for a President that promised to secure our borders and deport those who resided in our state illegally, Sheriff Smith is assuring the illegal immigrants and immigration lawyers in his community that he will not inform ICE about illegal immigrants charged with crimes unless those crimes are higher than a Class B misdemeanor.

“I’m the one that set the bar what we are going to do here in Smith County, DWI or above. Everybody that gets stopped for a traffic ticket, anything less than a class B misdemeanor has nothing to worry about.”
- Sheriff Smith on whether illegal immigrants should be worried about breaking traffic laws.

An audience member raises concern about how much time an illegal immigrant has after breaking the law before ICE is called. He assures the audience he will release the illegal back into the community as soon as the buzzer hits 48 hours.

“If ICE is not there within 48 hours they walk out the door.”
- Sheriff Smith on how long illegal aliens have before ICE shows up to deport.

An immigration attorney asks Sheriff Smith if any of the other Sheriffs disagree with his policy, because if so, he wants to inform the illegals in his community that listen to his radio show to give them a “heads up.”

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When an audience member inquires about whether an illegal who is arrested while driving is going to go through the immigration process, the sheriff assures him they won’t.

“If they did arrest him (an illegal alien) for no drivers license, they are not going through the immigration process. I assure you it won’t happen!”
- Sheriff Smith

When another audience member states that a different county is actually enforcing immigration checks on illegals without drivers licenses, the sheriff tells the audience member to avoid that county!

At one point the sheriff assures an audience member that if an illegal immigrant is arrested for driving without a drivers license, they simply fine them and release them without notifying ICE.

“They pay a fine, they make bond, they get out and go to court.”
- Sheriff Smith on illegals caught driving without a license.

The panel is frustrating to watch, especially considering the meeting is twice as long as it should be since the sheriff has a man translating all of the questions and answers into Spanish for the non-English speakers in the audience.

Maybe Smith county is the next safe haven for illegals in the state of Texas.

The entire panel can be viewed here.