By Jason Shotwell/reporter
In honor of Constitution Day, Fort Worth mayor pro tem Dennis Shingleton and members of the TR SGA hosted a Q&A to discuss constitutional issues Sept. 19 in the TR Campus Idea Store.
Shingleton, also a councilman for District 7, has been on the Fort Worth City Council for six years and spoke about current issues.
“The Constitution affects everyone,” he said. “It is our backbone.”
In talks about immigration, Shingleton was disappointed in the state for passing Senate Bill 4, a law that targets sanctuary cities and thinks parts of it are unconstitutional. However, when the city held a vote to join a lawsuit, Shingleton voted against it to not waste city money on something that could take years, he said.
“It is a stupid law,” he said. “If the Speaker of the House were here, I would tell him myself.”
Many legislators have problems with current immigration policy, and the state has passed down the issue to local government without the tools necessary to enforce it, Shingleton said.
“There was no money passed down from the state to local governments. It’s an unfunded mandate,” he said.
Solving immigration problems at TCC should be done by educating the students, TR SGA president David Dominguez said.
TR student Elijah Palacios said he admired Shingleton’s Constitution Day speech.
“I learned that hard work and participation can get you anywhere,” he said.
