State of Texas: ‘This is what our citizens want,’ Senate vote near for bill requiring sheriffs to partner with ICE

  

AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Legislation to mandate Texas sheriffs participate in immigration law enforcement is moving closer to a vote at the Texas Capitol. Senate Bill 8 is on the chamber’s intent calendar for Monday.

The bill filed by State Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, would require all Texas counties with 100,000 or more people to join Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) 287(g) program. Schwertner described the program as a partnership between local law enforcement and federal ICE in the identification and detainment of criminal aliens.

“People overwhelmingly saw the policies of an open border and how it affects communities, and they overwhelmingly warrant stronger enforcement of criminal aliens to make sure they are identified, detained, prosecuted and deported,” Schwertner said.

Senator Schwertner has discussed the ideas in Senate Bill 8 in previous sessions. He said this year, the ideas are getting more traction at the Capitol.

The current genesis of the bill is the people overwhelmingly voicing their opinion last November, on November 5, that we need stronger border enforcement and enforcement of our immigration laws,” Schwertner said.

Some opponents of the legislation have raised concern that it could create discourage some people from reporting crimes, potentially putting public safety at risk.

“As SB 8 is discussed, it is my sincere hope that public safety is carefully considered. When people are afraid, they hide in the shadows. Victims don’t report crime and witnesses don’t come forward with information. Criminals win as they take advantage of the vulnerable among us,” Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez wrote in a statement on SB 8.

“The impact of that reaches beyond immigration to our humanity. I want victims of crime to run to law enforcement, not away from us,” Hernandez added.

Schwertner emphasized that the goal of the legislation is to protect Texans by getting criminals out of the community.

“I ask them if they want criminal aliens running around and and causing violence and and crime against citizens that they know, Texans they know, and I would hope their answer would be no,” Schwertner said, referring to opponents of the legislation.

“We need to again, identify, detain, prosecute and deport criminal aliens. The 287(g) program goes a long ways of helping us identify those aliens that are in custody already for a crime they committed, and making sure that they’re held accountable,” Schwertner said.

During the committee hearing for SB 8, detractors of the program highlighted how expensive the program could be to enter, with Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne saying it would cost $10,000 for each officer in his program.

SB 8 would partially take the financial burden off most counties by starting a grant program. Counties would be granted money proportionally based on their population and how many counties applied for the grant.

However, SB 8 would force counties with more than a million people — Harris, Dallas, Tarrant, Bexar, Travis and Collin as of the 2020 census — to pay their own way.

“From (the Sheriff’s Association of Texas) we’re really worried about unfunded mandates,” Hawthorne, who also acts as the Legislative Chairman for the Sheriff’s Association of Texas, said while testifying in support of the bill. “We think that financial relief portion shouldn’t be in a grant program, it should just be a part of the program. And it should cover all 254 counties that get into the program.”

“There is a cost associated with it, but it’s defrayed by this grant program,” Schwertner said, He acknowldeged the concerns, while maintaining the cost should not derail the bill.

“In my opinion, it’s an obligation of local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws and detain criminal aliens. That is what our citizens want. That is what is necessary to make Texas safe and our community safe, and it is absolutely vital that we identify, detain, prosecute and deport criminal aliens that are in this country illegally,” Schwertner said.

The senator said he expects the process to be contentious, but he believes the legislation will become law.

“The bottom line is, the people of the United States, the people of Texas, has spoken very clearly in the national election on November 5,” Schwertner said. “It’s time for Texas take a very bold and powerful stance against criminal aliens and illegal immigration by passing Senate Bill 8.”

‘Appalled and disgusted,’ Insurance CEO grilled after emails reveal efforts to investigate customers and lawmakers

A health insurance company managing the care of sick and disabled children in Texas faces accusations of spying on state lawmakers and private citizens.

On Thursday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into Superior HealthPlan, one day after a heated public hearing at the Capitol. Lawmakers on the House Committee on Delivery of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, grilled the company’s CEO over surveillance practices, they say, crossed a line.

During Wednesday’s hearing, committee chairman Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, revealed emails showing Superior hired private investigators to get information on lawmakers and customers.

“I don’t think what any of us expected was for a health insurance company that is funded mostly by Texas taxpayer dollars, that they would use some of those monies to hire private investigators, that they would hire a private investigator to follow a mom whose child was being denied medical care,” Capriglione said, referencing the emails.

KXAN investigators have been working to verify and gain context about copies of emails they obtained, which showed similar exchanges between Superior CEO Mark Sanders and a personnel group known for background investigations. The emails, sent in 2017 and 2019, revealed Sanders asking for ‘in-depth’ reports about certain lawmakers and various health care providers.

“Mr. Sanders, have you ever tasked a private investigator firm to dig into the background and financial or personal records of any state government official or their wife?” Capriglione asked during the hearing.

“I have,” Sanders replied. “We’ve done what I would call general research, anything that’s publicly available,” he added.

“Why would you go and and run a background check, hire a private investigator to follow, to to dig into the records of people who are your customers?” Capriglione asked.

“First of all, I will say we no longer use that practice, and haven’t for several years,” Sanders answered. “At the time, we really just wanted to have information on those individuals, and really nothing beyond that of what was publicly available to us.”

In another exchange, a representative for the group confirms they would not be able to obtain another specific lawmaker’s divorce proceeding documents.

KXAN has reached out to Superior HealthPlan multiple times for comment and context about these exchanges since last year but has yet to receive a response.

KXAN also reached out to the lawmakers mentioned in the exchanges for context or response. Rep. Capriglione’s office noted he was “disappointed and dismayed” about an “apparent attempt to influence legislation.” Many others refused to comment on the record until Wednesday’s committee hearing, when Capriglione provided copies of the emails to other lawmakers on the dais.

“There was a time when I asked a lot of questions,” Capriglione said, “and I didn’t know that you could be penalized for asking questions — for trying to find out for the taxpayers and the constituents how their money was being spent.”

Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, told Sanders he was “appalled and disgusted” when he saw the emails.

“I had to lean over and ask him, I’m like, ‘Is this real?’ I’m not joking. I’ve been doing this 10 years,’ Representative Tinderholt said. “It’s emails with your name on it, and you investigated people that are on this dais for doing their job for Texans. What do you have to say for that?”

Sanders replied, “I think going back in time, I think it was just understanding what interests and information we could have knowledgeable of — be knowledgeable of when we’re meeting with different individuals.”

Throughout the hearing, Sanders insisted the company only sought publicly accessible information on people they were dealing with in their work.

Tinderholt fired back: “I disagree. You wanted leverage and you thought that you were going to use it.”

He and other lawmakers expressed concern the company sought leverage to win future state contracts or to discredit their own customers seeking payment on legitimate insurance claims.

“I’m embarrassed that you would be sitting in front of us and that you would try to pretend like you were gathering information just to have it. You don’t gather that kind of information to not use it,” Tinderholt added.

Superior HealthPlan is one of several private companies that operate Texas’ various Medicaid programs, under a system known as “managed care.” The state funnels public dollars to the private sector to manage care for many low-income, elderly, or disabled Texans and foster children.

One of those programs, known as STAR Kids, provides Medicaid benefits to young people with disabilities. The state turned it over to the managed care system in 2016.

Since then, some families in the program say they’ve noticed changes in the availability and quality of care, according to the founder of advocacy group Protect Texas Fragile Kids. Hannah Mehta, a mom-turned-advocate, has spent hours at the Capitol since then, on behalf of these families.

“It’s a constant daily battle for families to try to maintain the care that their child needs,” she said.

A 2018 investigative series by the Dallas Morning News profiled Mehta’s work. It also detailed the profits made by some companies operating the managed care system in the state, while denying or delaying vital medications and treatment to thousands of sick and disabled Texans. Dozens of bills were introduced in the legislative session that followed, aimed at addressing problems exposed in the series.

In an interview last year, Mehta told KXAN she believes more oversight is necessary.

“I think that many policymakers would be extremely alarmed to see the extent of influence and the dirty tactics that go on behind the scenes — that families experience on a daily basis.”

KXAN also obtained and reviewed a copy of a fraud, waste and abuse report prepared for Superior HealthPlan in 2018. It detailed personal information of some healthcare workers and private citizens featured in the Dallas Morning News investigation — including social security numbers, personal histories and even an aerial photos of the property of a mother featured in the series, whose foster child had been denied care and suffered.

In the DOGE hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Capriglione went on to accuse Sanders and the company of “going after” the journalists who worked on the series.

Central Texas Rep. Ellen Troxclair joined in, accusing the company of misusing taxpayer dollars while potentially failing to provide the best care for Texas kids.

“Now we’re up here talking to a company who has received millions, billions of dollars in taxpayer funds through Medicaid contracts who have used that money to then hire private investigators to follow around patients and legislators that are asking questions about what the heck is going on,” Troxclair said.

She went on to say, “We are all just trying to do our best to, you know, take care of our kids and pay the insurance and run the errands and do all the things that we have to do, and we’re paying into insurance, and we expect to see receive good medical care. And it’s a constant run around. It’s a constant hamster wheel. Texans continue to be sick.”

Sanders again stated that the emails reference investigations from several years ago. “We have not used that practice since then,” Sanders said in response to Troxclair.

“Why would we believe that?” Troxclair asked.

“I don’t know. I’m just saying that,” Sanders responded.

One day after the hearing, the Dallas Morning News reported that Sanders had been fired by Centene, the parent company to Superior HealthPlan.

In that interview last year, Mehta told KXAN she wanted to see an investigation into exactly how public dollars were being used by the companies managing the program and “whether or not they’re going to the children who they’re intended for.”

In his announcement Thursday, Attorney General Paxton said the investigation into “potentially unlawful actions” would begin immediately.

“I will get to the bottom of this, uncover any illegal activity, and hold bad actors responsible. Justice will be served,” the release read.

Bill to expand medical examiner access in Texas closer to law

Texas lawmakers moved one step closer to lowering the population threshold for requiring a county to switch from a justice of the peace system for death investigations to a medical examiner’s office, according to a vote Tuesday at the Capitol.

Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, and Joan Huffman, R-Houston, co-authored Senate Bill 1370, which would require a county to create a medical examiner’s office if its population reaches 1 million people – that would be a decrease from the current trigger point of 2.5 million. The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice voted 6-0 to pass the bill on for the full Senate to consider.

Lowering that threshold would ensure “more counties are equipped to provide timely and thorough forensic services,” according to Parker’s office.

The bill would also clarify that any two or more neighboring counties can join resources to form a medical examiner district and share facilities, costs and resources.

“By expanding the pool of counties required or able to create an office or a district, S.B. 1370 aims to strengthen investigative capacity statewide, enhance public health and safety, and improve the consistency and reliability of death investigations,” according to Parker’s statement of intent on the bill.

No one spoke against the bill in the hearing. Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, Fort Bend County’s chief medical examiner, spoke in favor of it, saying the best service a population can get is from a physician investigating deaths.

“The compassion of every society is measured by how they treat their dead. So we need to be respectful of the decisions, and we need to be able to properly certify their deaths,” Pustilnik told KXAN.

Texas currently has a two-tiered system for performing death inquests and making determinations on cause and manner of deaths. Fourteen counties, some of the most populated in the state, have medical examiner offices run by appointed medical doctors with years of training in death investigation and autopsy. All of Texas’ other 254 counties rely on their justices of the peace offices, overseen by elected judges, to certify manner and cause in unattended deaths. They can also send bodies for an autopsy, if they deem it necessary.

Justices of the peace are not required to have any experience in death investigations to be elected. They are required to undergo some training on inquests after taking office. 

But, while medical examiner offices focus specifically on death investigations, justices of the peace have an array of additional duties. They oversee small claims courts and truancy cases, perform marriages and handle low-level misdemeanor tickets.

Senate Bill 1370 follows an extensive KXAN investigation of Texas’ death investigation system.

KXAN detailed the long history of Texas justice of the peace offices, which began in the state two centuries ago.

The bill is one in a long line of similar pieces of legislation filed over decades that have raised and lowered the threshold for counties to open a medical examiner office. A 1955 law enabled counties with over 250,000 people to establish a medical examiner office.  Six years later, that threshold was moved down to 120,000; then legislators raised the bar to 500,000 people two years later.

Most recently, the threshold was set at 2.5 million in 2023.

Pustilnik said 2.5 million – essentially the population of Dallas County – was too high.

Justices of the peace in Williamson County, which has about 700,000 people, asked the county to fund hiring professional death investigators to buttress their offices. With fewer than 1 million people in the county, they were already struggling to handle the county’s growing death investigation duties on top of their legal dockets and other tasks.

County Commissioners in 2024 approved using over $450,000 to hire four death investigators to support those judges and take death investigation calls. They also recently purchased property for a future medical examiner office, anticipating the growing need.

There is one medical examiner district, with Tarrant County’s medical examiner office serving as the base for a handful of surrounding counties, where three of the seven members of the Senate panel that considered SB 1370 reside. Pustilnik said another district could be forming in South Texas, which he supports.

The state could be better served by medical examiners, but there are practical challenges to making that widespread reality, said Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin. For one, medical examiner offices are more expensive to operate. Secondly, with a lack of medical examiners nationwide, it could be tough to staff offices, if Texas had the will and wherewithal to implement a statewide system.

“Our JPs are really struggling,” she told KXAN earlier this legislative session. “We’ve seen way too many errors, relying on individuals who – God love them – they’re not equipped to make these calls. This is leading to unjust results in the criminal justice context.”

The benefits of a medical examiner extend beyond better death investigations, said Pustilnik, who helped draft Parker’s legislation. He described getting more counties under a medical examiner as a “moral imperative.”

Judge says extreme heat in Texas prisons is unconstitutional but doesn’t order they install AC

A federal judge on Wednesday found the extreme heat in Texas prisons is “plainly unconstitutional,” but declined to order the state to immediately start installing air conditioning, which could cost billions.

The judge affirmed claims brought by advocates of people incarcerated in the state, where summer heat routinely soars above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). But they will have to continue pressing their lawsuit later in a trial.

The lawsuit was initially filed in 2023 by Bernie Tiede, the former mortician serving a life sentence whose murder case inspired the movie “Bernie.” Several prisoners’ rights groups then asked to join his legal fight and expand it.

The lawsuit argues the heat in the state facilities amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and seeks to force the state to install air conditioning.

Jeff Edwards, lead attorney for prisoners and advocates, called the judge’s order a victory, even if it didn’t require an immediate fix.

“We proved our case,” Edwards said. “The court made it very clear what the state is doing is unconstitutional and endangering the lives of those they are supposed to be protecting … This is step one in changing the Texas prison system.”

Edwards said advocates will push for relief for prisoners as quickly as possible. “I’m regretful we can’t protect them with temporary relief this summer, but we will move as fast as we can,” he said.

Texas has more than than 130,000 people serving time in prisons, more than any state in the U.S. Only about a third of roughly 100 prison units are fully air conditioned and the rest have either partial or no electrical cooling.

“This case concerns the plainly unconstitutional treatment of some of the most vulnerable, marginalized members of our society,” U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote in his ruling on a a temporary injunction request. “The Court is of the view that excessive heat is likely serving as a form of unconstitutional punishment.”

But the judge said that ordering the state to spend “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to install permanent air conditioning in every (prison),” could not be accomplished before it expired in 90 days.

It would take months to install temporary air conditioning, and could even delay a permanent solution, the judge wrote.

Pitman said he expects the case will proceed to trial, where advocates for prisoners can continue to argue their case.

He also issued a warning to the state that they will likely win at trial, and that the state could face an order to install air conditioning.

The judge also noted that the state Legislature, which is in session through May and writes the two-year state budget, is also considering bills that would require air conditioning to be installed in prisons.

But the Republican-majority Legislature has been hearing complaints about extreme heat in prisons for years and has not addressed the issue. In 2018, the state was ordered to install air conditioning at a unit for older prisoners and those that are medically vulnerable.

Officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Texas is not alone in facing lawsuits over dangerously hot prisons. Cases also have been filed in Louisiana and New Mexico. One filed in July in Georgia alleged a man died in July 2023 after he was left in an outdoor cell for hours without water, shade or ice.

A November 2022 study by researchers at Brown, Boston and Harvard universities found that 13% — or 271 — of the deaths in Texas prisons without universal AC between 2001 and 2019 may be attributed to extreme heat. Prisoner advocates say those numbers are only likely to increase as the state faces more extreme weather and heat due to climate change.

Last year in a hearing, people who were formerly incarcerated testified about their experiences in hot prison buildings where they said temperatures reach above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 Celsius).

They testified some inmates would splash toilet water on themselves to cool off, fake suicide attempts to be moved to cooler medical areas, or even deliberately set fires so that guards would be forced to hose down cells.

“It’s sad it takes a federal court to come in and change things,” Edwards said Wednesday. “This is not a Spanish galley in the 1600s, this is 2025.”

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Director Bryan Collier has acknowledged that heat was a factor in three deaths from multiple causes in 2023, and that prison staff and inmates sometimes fall ill from high temperatures.

But the state disputed the hundreds of deaths in recent years alleged by the prisoner advocates, and argues Texas has implemented effective heat mitigation measures, such as providing fans, towels and access to cooler “respite” areas.

Collier also insisted he would like to have air conditioning installed across the prison system, but that state lawmakers have never agreed to spend enough money to do that.