Austin, like many cities, is grappling with how to protect residents and prevent police officers from becoming de facto ICE agents.
on how city police can interact with federal immigration agents — and city leaders are divided on what the change actually means.that Austin police “must” contact a supervisor if they encounter someone who they believe to be undocumented and they plan to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement .
Now, the rules say that police “should, when operationally feasible,” do so. , claiming the city was not in compliance with Senate Bill 4. The law, which passed in 2017, prohibits police departments from telling officers they cannot contact ICE. He said the Austin Police Department is also short-staffed, and it should be prioritizing local matters, like violent crimes, property crimes and patrolling.
“Given that we are 300 officers short, I do not see how it will be operationally feasible for our patrol officers to take time out of their patrol and communicate with ICE,” Vela said. “Under the amended general orders, Austin police will call ICE more frequently, which will result in more members of our community being detained and deported,” he said. “And at the same time, drawing our officers away from solving real public safety concerns, like active 911 calls.
”Police union says things won’t change Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said yes — and that it’s always been that way. The issue is what happens when police come across someone who has an “administrative warrant.
” These “warrants” are a document indicating the person might have committed an immigration violation,“Unless have an active warrant for a violent felony, we are going to divert our attention to the most immediate task, and that’s been the practice,” he said.
“That’s been what our department has done historically. ”“Administrative immigration things, if you're the victim of a crime, is not what we are focused on,” Bullock said.
“We’re focused on the criminal. That's what we’re focused on. ”Critics worry that the city’s recent rule change means that what happened to an Austin woman from Honduras back in January might be repeated. The woman called 911 to report a domestic disturbance, and she and her 5-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, were later both deported.
And during a February public hearing, people called on the city to do more to protect people from ICE enforcement. Hundreds of residents yelled and booed as Police Chief Lisa Davis and several council members tried to talk with residents about immigration enforcement in Austin.
“There is a rule of law that I have to follow as a chief of police here in the state of Texas,” Davis told the crowd in February. Austin City Council members are looking for other ways to put up guardrails that protect people who are undocumented. Last month, they adopted a resolution to create a working group that would create more rules around police interactions with ICE.
The working group will also explore how to ensure that people can call authorities without fear of getting arrested for other noncriminal matters, like civil warrants for unpaid fees.
“I think that this resolution is a really great first step in working to really rebuild that trust,” Silva said. “And communicate to Austinites that our institutions, that are there to protect people, really want to be able to do that. ” But for now, the working group doesn’t have the power to change any rules or tell police what to do. And the group has yet to convene its first meeting.
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