The sanctuary city playbook is spreading in red states

I live in a community that, not long ago, was a quiet town outside Austin — one of many places people fled in search of safety, order, and a better quality of life. Today, that same community is rapidly transforming into the very version of Austin many residents hoped to escape.

Growth isn’t the problem. Ideology is.

My community is changing, not because it is growing, but because it is abandoning the principles that once made it worth building a life here.

A dangerous idea has taken hold in America: that enforcing the law is immoral, that accountability is cruelty, and that penalizing criminal behavior matters less than protecting the feelings of those who violate the law.

This worldview didn’t emerge organically. Institutions taught it, activists repeated it, and public officials normalized it until many Americans came to believe the humane response to disorder is deliberate blindness.

Last week, that ideology went on full display in my town.

Federal immigration authorities conducted targeted enforcement operations in the area. Homeland Security professionals carried out lawful, focused actions while doing the job Congress — and the American people — have repeatedly mandated that they do.

Within hours, local social media erupted. Facebook groups, Instagram accounts, and self-styled “community leaders” posted warnings about ICE. Progressive elected officials piled on, condemning the operation and circulating tips on how to avoid federal law enforcement. Some encouraged demonstrations near ICE activity to “drive them out.” Others urged residents to honk at ICE vehicles to alert everyone nearby to the supposed “danger.”

Many Americans shrug this off as routine political theater. What followed was worse.

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Tim Evans/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Instead of standing firmly behind the rule of law, our local government and law enforcement agencies rushed to distance themselves — not out of principle, but out of fear. City social media accounts quickly clarified that ICE had merely notified the city of a vehicle parked near City Hall and that the city neither supported nor assisted the operation.

The message was unmistakable: Don’t blame us.

Screenshot/City of Buda/X.com

Even more disheartening, the police department issued its own statement emphasizing that it was not cooperating with ICE enforcement activities, noting only that officers responded alongside an ambulance.

Again, the message was clear: We want no part of this.

Screenshot/Kyle Police Department/X.com

This didn’t happen in Minnesota or Illinois. It happened in Texas — a state known nationwide for being tough on crime and historically supportive of immigration enforcement.

It happened just miles from our state Capitol. Yet even here, local entities openly refuse to cooperate with the mandate Americans have repeatedly voted for: enforcing our immigration laws.

In doing so, these institutions accomplished two things — neither defensible.

First, they publicly disavowed the enforcement of federal law, as though lawful authority were something shameful.

Second, they compromised operational security by broadcasting where law enforcement was present and what it was — or was not — doing. In any other context, that would be recognized as reckless. Here, activists applauded it.

Texas leaders should treat this as a warning.

State government must hold every jurisdiction accountable for never becoming a sanctuary — whether by statute or by practice — for illegal immigration and criminal activity. The Texas legislature took a critical step by passing legislation requiring most county sheriffs’ departments to participate in ICE’s 287(g) program. That built a foundation. We need more.

Texas should require all local law enforcement agencies to enter the 287(g) program that best fits their department and to publicly commit to enforcing the law. Accountability cannot stop at county lines. It cannot become optional based on online outrage and activist pressure.

RELATED: Illegal-alien patients drain Texas hospitals, racking up billion-dollar bill — in less than a year

Photo by: John Lazenby/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Just one year ago, the country was overwhelmed daily by mass illegal border crossings. The effort to restore control through lawful enforcement and deportation has only begun. Texas will never address the scale of the problem if cities — especially in red states — can refuse responsibility and pass the buck.

A society cannot function if enforcing the law is treated as oppression and breaking it is reframed as victimhood. Compassion doesn’t require chaos. Justice can’t survive if the people tasked with upholding it feel compelled to apologize for doing their jobs.

My community is changing, not because it is growing, but because it is abandoning the principles that once made it worth building a life here. If we keep going down this path — where enforcing the law becomes controversial and officials fear activists more than disorder — we should not act surprised when the place we moved to becomes indistinguishable from the place we left.