Pledging to “protect communities, not criminals,” Governor Greg Abbott recently unveiled his public safety agenda for the next legislative session. Joined by law enforcement leaders and Republican lawmakers, Abbott has held events recently in Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Arlington to tout his public safety agenda.
Abbott’s public safety priorities for the upcoming legislative session include new laws to deny bail for criminal illegal immigrants, establishing a Texas Statewide Prosecutor, the impeachment of “rogue” District Attorneys, and expansion of the Texas Repeat Offender Task Force.
“My top priority is to protect communities, not criminals,” said Governor Abbott at a recent event in Austin. “Last session, we delivered the toughest bail reform package in Texas history. Now, we are building on that success to deny bail for illegal immigrants charged with felonies, remove rogue DAs, and get repeat offenders off the streets. The choice is clear: support the safety of citizens, or the criminals who endanger them.”
At an event in San Antonio, Abbott pointed to failures by District Attorneys in Bexar and Travis Counties to issue indictments for suspects arrested for violent crimes by the deadline imposed by state law as justification for creating a Texas Statewide Prosecutor’s office.
“The primary goal will be to make sure that, never again, are we going to have any type of criminal walk free because a District Attorney fails to bring an indictment within the 90 days prescribed by law,” remarked Abbott.
“There were hundreds of cases like that in Travis County, including many murderers in Travis County who walked free because the DA did not bring the indictment within the 90-day time period.”
Abbott also called for the impeachment of District Attorneys who are “not doing their job” or are “endangering their community” – a remedy that is currently not available under state law.
“Every statewide elected official, including myself, is subject to impeachment. Every state legislator is subject to impeachment. Every state district judge is subject to impeachment. The only elected official not subject to impeachment is a District Attorney. There’s no reason for that. District Attorneys, just like every other elected official, must be held accountable when they fail to and refuse to do their job. And so I’m calling for impeachment to be available in the Constitution as a form of accountability with regard to prosecutors going forward,” said Abbott during his remarks in Arlington.
In Houston, Abbott discussed the success of the Department of Public Safety’s Repeat Offender Task Force in the Houston region and called for its expansion to the Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio areas.
Abbott told the audience, “Last year, I created a task force to go after repeat offenders, where we worked in collaboration with the Houston Police Department, with the Sheriff’s Department here in Harris County, with federal law enforcement authorities. And together, we’ve taken off the streets in Houston more than 700 of the most dangerous criminals and put them where they belong – which is behind bars. Well, we want to expand that across the state.”
The Governor is also asking lawmakers to require that any illegal immigrant who is arrested on a felony charge be denied bail.
“We want to ensure that any illegal immigrant who is in Texas illegally and commits a felony is going to be arrested and be behind bars and denied bail while they are awaiting trial for the felony that they were arrested for. And the reason for this is very simple – and that is somebody who is here illegally is a greater, greater flight risk than somebody else. And by being arrested for a felony, they’ve already proven that they are an endangerment to our community,” said Abbott during his Austin event.
