Ken Paxton Just Gave Dallas Sheriff Marian Brown a Deadline She Cannot Ignore

Two illegal aliens shot a pregnant woman at a Dallas gas station on May 3 – and her baby died after an emergency C-section.

That happened in Dallas County – the same county whose sheriff told the state in October that she was making "no additional efforts" to partner with ICE.

Now Ken Paxton has had enough, and what he put in writing to Sheriff Marian Brown is something she can't ignore.

Paxton Opens a Formal Investigation and Sets the Clock

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a formal letter to Dallas County Sheriff Marian Brown on Wednesday demanding she pursue a 287(g) agreement with ICE – and announced his office is launching a formal investigation into what he called her "sanctuary policies."

The demand flows directly from Senate Bill 8, which became state law on January 1, 2026.

SB 8 requires every sheriff running a county jail in Texas to enter into a formal agreement with ICE – agreements that authorize local deputies to carry out immigration enforcement duties including questioning inmates about their status and serving administrative warrants.

Brown publicly rejected that requirement in October 2025, before the law even took effect.

According to the Texas AG's office, she stated her department would make "no additional efforts" toward securing the agreement – a statement Paxton cited directly in his letter.

"The decision of whether to seek such an agreement is not yours to make," Paxton wrote to Brown.

Paxton set a hard deadline: Brown must report documented efforts to pursue the agreement before June 1, 2026.

"If efforts are not undertaken and reported before Monday, June 1, 2026, I will consider that failure as confirmation of your refusal to comply," Paxton wrote.

He added that he would use "every tool available" to secure compliance – and make Brown "personally held accountable" for any failure.

Brown Pushes Back – and Dallas Pays the Price for Soft Policies

Brown disputed Paxton's timeline in a letter obtained by FOX 4 Dallas, arguing the law gives counties until December 1, 2026 – not June 1 – to comply with the 287(g) requirement.

She also claimed her October "no additional efforts" statement reflected her view that Dallas County's existing federal coordination already meets what SB 8 requires.

Paxton isn't buying it.

His office noted that SB 8 doesn't just require eventual compliance – it requires sheriffs to show proof they have actively attempted to enter an agreement.

Brown's office has filed no such proof.

El Paso, Bexar, and Harris counties – three of the largest in Texas – have either finalized 287(g) agreements with ICE or are deep in negotiations.

Dallas County, under Brown's watch, has done nothing.

This standoff isn't happening in a vacuum.

Just last month, Paxton sued Houston Mayor John Whitmire and the entire Houston City Council after they passed an ordinance blocking officers from cooperating with ICE administrative warrants – a direct violation of SB 4, the state's 2017 anti-sanctuary law.

Governor Greg Abbott threatened to freeze more than $100 million in public safety grants to Houston over the dispute.

Whitmire blinked – and reversed course.

The message from Austin to every Texas city and county is the same: the sanctuary era is over, and the legal hammer is real.

Dallas Has a Crime Problem That Brown Is Making Worse

The stakes here aren't bureaucratic.

On May 3, ICE formally asked Dallas officials not to release two illegal aliens – Keyner Ariel Calero-Jiron from Nicaragua and a 17-year-old accomplice – after they allegedly opened fire on multiple people at a gas station, killing an unborn child at 22 weeks.

Fleeing police after the shooting, the suspects crashed their vehicle and were found with cocaine and illegal weapons.

The same week, ICE asked Dallas officials to hold Luis Benitez-Gonzalez, a Mexican national arrested in Dallas on April 27, after DNA evidence connected him to two separate murders in Texas spanning six years – the 2018 killing of 28-year-old Alba Jenisse Aviles in Bastrop County and the 2024 killing of 34-year-old Alyssa Ann Rivera in Austin.

These are not statistics.

These are Dallas County residents – people who would still be alive if local law enforcement had been working with ICE at full capacity.

Brown's "no additional efforts" posture isn't a policy nuance.

It's a choice – one that leaves violent illegal aliens on the streets longer than necessary while she argues about calendar deadlines.

Paxton put it plainly: "I will not allow the people of Dallas County to suffer because the Sheriff refuses to work with ICE to keep violent illegals off our streets."

June 1 is two weeks away.

Sources:

• Greg Wehner, "TX AG Paxton demands Dallas sheriff pursue ICE agreement as deadline dispute sparks legal threat," Fox News, May 13, 2026.
• "Attorney General Paxton Investigates Dallas County Sheriff for Sanctuary Policies," Office of the Texas Attorney General, May 13, 2026.
• "ICE Asks Dallas Officials to Not Release Two Illegal Aliens After Shooting that Killed an Unborn Baby," Department of Homeland Security, May 14, 2026.
• "ICE Asks Officials in Dallas, Texas to Not Release Illegal Alien Accused of Two Murders," Department of Homeland Security, May 13, 2026.
• "Attorney General Ken Paxton Sues Houston Officials for Adopting Sanctuary City Policies," Office of the Texas Attorney General, April 2026.