Lawsuit Challenges Austin’s Sanctuary Status

The family of murdered St. Edwards University freshman Virginia Garcia have filed suit against the city of Austin, claiming Austin’s status as a so called ‘sanctuary city’ led to Garcia’s murder, 1200 WOAI news reported today.

The 18 year old Garcia, who was known as Jenny, was stabbed to death insider her northwest Austin home, and police arrested an illegal alien, David Diaz Morales, 20, whom they said was ‘infatuated’ with Garcia. Morales was also charged with burglarizing Garcia’s home.

Attorney Matt Burns said Austin’s very controversial policy of prohibiting police and other local officials from referring cases to federal authorities for immigration law violations and deportation led to Garcia’s murder, and is also in violation of federal law.

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Burns said the fact that Morales re-entered the United States after being deported, and the fact that he had previously been charged in the sexual assault of a child, would have qualified him for immediate deportation, meaning that he would not have been in Austin to murder Jenny Garcia, but that didn’t happen because of Austin’s ‘sanctuary’ law.

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