DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department has updated its immigration enforcement policies, changing language surrounding detention length requirements, the Texas Tribune reported.
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The department on April 23 removed its ban on officers prolonging detentions during “police encounters,” such as traffic stops, to hold them for ICE agents. The move comes after an April 16 warning from Gov. Greg Abbott that grant funding would be suspended if the city didn’t change its general orders limiting ICE cooperation.
The grant money Abbott threatened to withhold included $32 million in state grants and more than $55 million in World Cup public safety funding.
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Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux stated the updates are intended to “cooperate with federal authorities when required” while still protecting the safety of residents, the Tribune reported.
The revised policy allows officers to ask people for their immigration status when they are lawfully detained and share that information with federal authorities. It no longer bans officers from supporting ICE agents as “reasonable or necessary.”
The new order left out language from the previous policy stating that officers may not prolong detentions of individuals to investigate their immigration status or hold them for federal agents.
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The policy maintains that officers may not stop or contact people solely to determine their immigration status, nor can they ask victims, witnesses or people reporting crimes about their status under normal circumstances, the Tribune reported.
“As mayor of Dallas, public safety is my highest priority, and I agree with Governor Abbott that federal immigration enforcement plays a role in keeping our city safe,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement to The Texas Tribune. “I appreciate Chief Comeaux’s ensuring the Dallas Police Department’s internal policies reflect its longstanding practice of cooperating with all of our state and federal law enforcement partners, including those that enforce our nation’s immigration laws.”
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