A Texas police officer is under fire after posting an unauthorized video telling undocumented immigrants in his city that his department has not enforced immigration laws “for many, many years.”
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Fort Worth Officer Daniel Segura posted a nearly 6-minute video on his Facebook page Wednesday morning, hoping to calm fears in the local Hispanic community following President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration.
He said his fellow police officers “don’t care” about a person’s immigration status and that they have the “same rights as anyone else who lives in Fort Worth.”
“We are going to defend you. We are going to protect you,” Segura said in Spanish.
It was Segura’s talk about the enforcement of federal immigration laws that got him in the most trouble.
“In the City of Fort Worth for many, many years, we have not enforced immigration laws. We are not federal officials that can enforce federal immigration laws. I want to make that very, very clear,” he said. “We, in Fort Worth, do not execute or enforce laws on immigration so that people that live in Fort Worth do not have the fear that we can possibly deport them. That is not true.”
The video has gone viral with more than 23 million views on YouTube alone.
The department then issued a statement saying it did enforce all laws – local and federal – to protect all citizens, and that Fort Worth was not a sanctuary city.
“The video is not intended to represent the views of the City of Fort Worth on immigration or compliance with immigration policies,” the statement said.
The department said Segura would not face any disciplinary action because of his video.
In regards to not disciplining Officer Segura, we say good. While the video caused the agency to issue a statement, Segura’a actions are admirable. He sensed fear in a community and addressed it. It probably should have been addressed by the agency itself so as we see it, Officer Segura simply did the job for them.
Officer Segura is an active officer in the Hispanic community. He does things the right way, for the right reason and we applaud him.
There are many groups in America that are nervous and let us be clear, they are nervous because of the media. President Trump has been very clear that if you are an illegal immigrant and a criminal, you should be on notice but he has never indicated as President of the United States that he would deport good, honest individuals that are in our country.
Thank you Officer Segura for calming your community and for all of the work that you do.
