The Todd and Don Blog
SXSW organizers reject senators’ call to leave Texas because of ‘sanctuary cities’ ban

Photo Courtesy of: Shutterstock/GSPhotography
Nolan Hicks - American Statesman Staff
Two U.S. senators urged the organizers of the South by Southwest Festival to move the international event out of Texas in response to the controversial “sanctuary cities" ban approved by state lawmakers — a notion that SXSW organizers quickly shot down.
The request in a letter by Democratic U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada triggered another bout in the long-running row between city and state leaders over the measure, which would create civil and criminal penalties for officials who impede requests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to extend the detention of jail inmates suspected of being in the country illegally.
The law, effective Sept. 1, would also prohibit...