[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16555]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                     STAND WITH SHERIFF LUPE VALDEZ

  (Mr. VEASEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand with Lupe. That is 
Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. Sheriff Lupe Valdez has a great 
history in Dallas County, but recently she has come under attack from 
our Governor for trying to build relationships between the law 
enforcement community and the immigrant community.
  Governor Abbott sent a threatening letter to Sheriff Valdez, 
questioning her decision to decline certain Federal ICE detainers when 
the immigrant in question is not a public safety risk--not a public 
safety risk.
  Sheriff Valdez understands that, in order to serve and protect the 
immigrant community, she must have the trust of that community.
  I call on Governor Abbott, instead of trying to erode that trust 
between law enforcement and the immigrant community, to work with the 
Republican Texas delegation to push for comprehensive immigration 
reform, to push for the things that the business community wants, that 
the church community wants, in order to do something about our broken 
immigration system instead of trying to push for things like sanctuary 
city bills.
  If we work together with the immigrant community and do the right 
thing, together we can work on solving a lot of these issues.
  I ask my colleagues and the Governor to stand with Lupe and to do the 
right thing when it comes to Texas immigrants.

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