Honorable Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez,

As concerned Central Texas residents along with The Foundation for the Austin Sanctuary Network, we request you publicly announce your concrete plans and timeline for implementing in-person Counsel At First Appearance (CAFA) for all detainees in the Travis County Jail, now. The 6th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees everyone the right to an attorney.  With our county not providing CAFA, it means Travis County is violating the constitutional rights of everyone who lives here.

In 2023 the Texas State Legislature continued its attacks on immigrant community members by attempting to deny their protected rights and criminalize their presence in Texas with Senate Bill 4, which was passed forcefully in the fourth and last special session. Without implementing CAFA  before S.B.4 goes into law, local police officers and magistrate judges will be forced to remove people from their communities unconstitutionally. We fear this law will empower individual officers and judges to unjustly remove people from our community, create confusion and chaos in our federal immigration system, and open Travis County to more litigation. 

This law will force our local magistrate judges to implement federal laws that they do not have the jurisdiction to enforce and that will impact immigrants’ lives dramatically. It will potentially make community members ineligible to ever apply for documents because of an unjust deportation. We want CAFA implemented with interpretation provided for both in-person visits with attorneys and appearances before magistrate judges. Honorable Sheriff Hernandez, when you were first elected into office you promised that everyone in your jail would be treated equally under the law. 

Thus, we expect you to publicly announce your concrete plans and timeline for enabling in-person CAFA for all detainees in the Travis County Jail now.