Yesterday, SB 4, the controversial Texas law that would make illegal entry into the United States a state crime, and allow local police to arrest those under the suspicion of being in the United States illegally, and allow state judges to effectively deport persons convicted, briefly went into effect before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked it, again, late last night.
Given SB 4’s impact on the community, KRGV’s Rudy Mireles took to Facebook to express his frustration with local Rio Grande Valley law enforcement for not providing any comments regarding SB 4 to KRGV or any other local news outlet but, instead, provided comments to “national news” outlets.
Although we cannot verify which local law enforcement agencies Mireles was referring to, a quick scouring of several national articles regarding SB 4 was able to yield a quote from Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra to the Associated Press, stating:
“A lot of the local police chiefs here, we don’t believe it will survive a constitutional challenge. … We have no training whatsoever to determine whether an individual is here in this country, legally.”
Being that the article was written and disseminated by the Associated Press, the article was later re-posted on KRGV’s website and a plethora of different news outlets.
KRGV would, eventually, acquire several comments from local law enforcement, first from Mission PD, whom expressed that they would only apprehend people seen “swimming across…riding boats across,” and in a later story from Port Isabel PD, whom expressed concerns regarding the enforcement of the law.
KRGV’s own Facebook page also chimed in this morning, even after running stories with comments from local police departments:
Of the 3 major local news outlets in the Valley, only KRGV is spending any real effort in covering the impact of SB 4, a law that would have an almost immediate impact on the community. MyRGV has the exact same AP report that was disseminated to all news outlets, and SB 4 is no where near ValleyCentral’s Pulitzer Prize chasing-radar, where they, miraculously, don’t have top coverage of melting peeps.
Ok, maybe KRGV doesn’t have the best track record either, but at the very least, they’re trying to keep the community informed on this new law and local law enforcement has every responsibility to be as transparent as possible when an issue can decidedly impact a community so close to the border.
Rudy is right; I’m sure our local PD can take a break from appearing in shitty rap videos and pick up his call for a simple quote.
