Hundreds of people packed into East Austin’s Govalle Elementary School Cafeteria on Feb. 5, driven by growing concerns about cooperation between the Austin Police Department and the U.S. Customs and Enforcement (ICE).
Moderating the event with Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis and Austin City council members was District 4 Council Member José “Chito” Vela, a former immigration attorney.
“I understand the irony in all of this when I am asking you all to feel safe calling 911,” said Chief Davis. She proceeded to provide context for a January event in which a Honduran-born mother reported a disturbance to 911 only to be detained and deported by ICE, along with her five-year-old daughter.
Davis said that a person on the 911 call was heard saying that, “the police are coming, he has a detainment out for him.” This prompted officers to find an administrative warrant on the caller’s record directing them to “call ICE.” That’s what they did, David said, leading to the deportations.
Administrative warrants are not the same as judicial warrants but allow ICE agents to make arrests. A Texas immigration law known as SB4 says that police departments cannot reasonably prevent an officer from calling ICE. Austin police have made dozens of such calls, KUT reported.
“In February of this year in an unprecedented move, ICE started to put those (administrative) warrants into the traditional system that criminal warrants were in,” Vela explained. “We were slow in reacting to and understanding what those warrants were and changing policies to adapt to the use of those warrants,” added Vela, who acknowledged that Austin police made a mistake with the ICE warrants.
Image credit: Taylor Crownover.
Who decides?
Chief Davis said that APD will introduce a policy to handle future ICE administrative warrants. It will direct officers who want to act on an administrative warrant to refer the matter to their commanding officer, who will decide what to do. One factor, Davis said, is that ADP – which is short more than 300 officers – often lacks the resources to detain an individual until ICE arrives.
This policy triggered shouts from the audience to “Be better!”
“We are trying to be better,” Davis responded, “that’s why we are putting this in the hands of the commanders to take it out of the officer’s hands to make these decisions.”
The audience erupted in raucous boos every time SB4 was mentioned.
“I’m sorry that we are not saying everything that you want to hear,” Vela said after one outburst, “but we’ve got to tell you the truth. We have to explain the legal situation and what we are – and are not – allowed to do.”
“Believe me, our officers encounter administrative warrants every day and the majority choose not to call ICE,” Davis said.
These explanations did not satisfy many members of the crowd. One audience member asked, “Why does our ability to remain in the country depend on one individual’s feelings at the moment of detainment?”
Image credit: Taylor Crownover.
Detainee rights
A representative of the immigration nonprofit American Gateways asked, “When an officer has pulled someone over for questioning, if they decide to call ICE, is the individual being detained? Do they have a right to leave?”
“No,” Davis responded, “they are not being detained, they are free to go” while the officer reviews the administrative warrant. Since ICE is not law enforcement, the individual is not required to wait around until they arrive to review citizenship documentation.
This answer confused the audience. “How will they know if they are allowed to leave?” a Workers Defense representative asked Davis. “Are you willing to commit today, to create verbal instructions, similar to Miranda Rights, to be read to people facing detainment?”
“We are trying to think of ways to think outside of the box,” said Davis. “Do we hand out a card that says these are your rights here?”
Davis said she would always be willing to sit down with community members to find ways to collaborate. The audience loudly protested this vague response.
District 2 Council Member Vanessa Fuentes asked about the role of APD in ICE detainments. Davis said that officers should hold everyone and each other accountable to prevent anyone from breaking laws, including federal law enforcement. If proceedings are legal, however, she said, APD does not play a role in ICE detainments other than providing reasonable safety measures such as blocking off surrounding traffic.
‘Reality’ sinks in
Throughout the night, audience members who wanted APD to stand up to ICE more shouted such things as “ICE out” and “Coward.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but just like with my clients I have to tell you the truth,” Vela said. “The reality is that APD is not going to be able to combat ICE in the streets.”
Unprecedented recent changes in immigration laws and practices have caught Austin’s local government and police off guard. For example, Vela said that the Trump administration recently reversed a policy that had prevented ICE officers from detaining people in such “sensitive” areas as nearby churches and schools. Now, these sanctuaries are fair game.
When asked about local police responses to ICE in other cities, Vela said that Texas is very different. “LA, Minneapolis, Chicago. Those are blue states with Democratic governors and largely pro-immigrant policies,” he said. “We have still seen ICE run rampant through those communities even in a situation where the police department has the full support of the government.”
In a Spanish language interview with Reporte Austin before the panel discussion, Vela likened the situation to a soccer match. “They try one tactic, and we respond,” he said of Austin’s response to ICE. “Action and reaction. We will keep responding to each change in the best way we can.”
On this night, however, many soccer fans left dissatisfied with a home team that didn’t land a single goal.
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