SAN ANTONIO -- Bexar County Commissioners vote to join the city of San Antonio's lawsuit against the state over Senate Bill 4, or the "Sanctuary cities" law.

Leaders made their opposition to the bill loud and clear.

"Everybody seems to forget where in the hell they came from," said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff.

"This is a slap in the face for our citizenship in this state, especially South Texas," Precinct 2 Commissioner Paul Elizondo said.

"I frankly don't appreciate being put in the position and having people pimped out quite frankly for political red meat to stir up people and create division," said Precinct 4 Commissioner Tommy Calvert.

"I think whether it's now or 30 days from now, we need to move forward," said Chico Rodriguez, Commissioner for Precinct 1.

Moving forward means joining in on the city of San Antonio's lawsuit against the state. Senate Bill 4  takes effect September 1st and will allow law enforcement officials to question the immigration states of anyone when detained.

"I've got a jail that's busting at the seams. I've got 26,000 warrants, people with warrants, walking the streets of Bexar County. Notice that I'm saying that undocumented immigration is not high on my priority list. I've got some real problems," said Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

Under the new law, local governments and law enforcement could face criminal penalties.

"That just is repulsive that you can do that to an elected sheriff when there is no requirement in the federal law for us to even do what we're doing voluntarily now, and paying for that," said Judge Wolff.

San Antonio has never been a sanctuary city, and the Sheriff says he'll continue to protect the community the best he can.

"We've given no indications that we're going to fail to comply with this law. In fact we're preparing ourselves for the training our officers are going to receive to ensure we're in compliance with the law, but also to ensure that we aren't creating problems where there are none," Sheriff Salazar said.

The lawsuit recently gained support from the city of Austin last week. It has been assigned to a federal judge in San Antonio.

Statement From Kevin Wolff: