Authorities launch a series of raids in Texas targeting undocumented immigrants.
Unauthorized residents with criminal records are focus of operation
AUSTIN — Federal immigration officials acknowledged to a Texas congressman Friday that they are conducting a specialized operation in Central and South Texas and beyond to capture unauthorized immigrants with criminal records.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, DSan Antonio, confirmed that targeted operations are taking place in Austin and elsewhere in a program that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is calling Operation Cross Check.
Castro, in a news release, said he learned of the operation from ICE’s San Antonio office. The operation appears to be targeting unauthorized immigrants with criminal records, according to the Mexican consul general in Austin and a Washington Post report that states such operations are occurring in six states.
Social media was abuzz with rumors, and reports of roundups and immigrant rights groups were poised for increased enforcement promised by President Donald Trump.
Advocacy groups contend Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country as part of stepped-up enforcement under Trump.
They have cited immigration action in Southern California they believe is especially heavyhanded.
The government says it’s simply enforcing the laws and conducting routine enforcement targeting immigrants in the country illegally with criminal records.
Gillian Christensen, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, confirmed to the Washington Post that ICE agents this week had raided homes and workplaces in Atlanta, the Los Angeles area and two other cities she declined to identify, as part of “routine” immigration enforcement actions
But immigration activists said Friday that they had documented ICE raids of unusual intensity in the last 48 hours in Austin, Dallas and Pflugerville; Vista, Pomona and Compton, Calif.; Alexandria and Annandale, Va.; Charlotte and Burlington, N.C.; Plant City, Fla.; the Hudson Valley region of New York; and Wichita, Kan.
Arrest in Austin
Carlos González Gutiérrez, Mexico’s consul general in Austin, said his office has seen a “clearly visible uptick” in detentions of Mexican immigrants by federal immigration officials across Central Texas in recent days.
The consulate is notified every time a Mexican immigrant is detained in the Austin metro area. In recent years, that has meant about four or five people a day.
On Thursday, the consulate was notified of 14 immigrants in federal custody. On Friday, they learned of 30 more detentions, González Gutiérrez said.
A spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Houston could not be reached for comment Friday night.
Andrea Guttin, legal director of Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, said the raids are “certainly a concern” though she has not heard of any in Houston.
”It is something that we are trying to prepare for,” she said.
She said next week her group and others plan to launch an immigrant and refugee rights hotline.
The Austin operation appears to have been underway since Thursday. On Friday, agents arrested in northwest Austin at least one person suspected of having entered the country illegally during an incident in which an ICE agent was injured, according to authorities.
According to friends of the detained person, Hugo Baltazar-Ramirez, ICE agents pulled him over at about 6 a.m. near U.S. 183 and Anderson Mill Road while he was driving to work.
The incident was the first solid indication of an ICE operation in Austin after swirling rumors of raids had grown for days among the immigrant community and local activists.
Travis County spotlight
Many of them thought Travis County had become a ripe target for increased immigration enforcement since Sheriff Sally Hernandez ended blanket cooperation with ICE agents Feb. 1.
Armed with proof ICE was conducting a new operation in Austin, some city leaders Friday promised swift action to aid unauthorized immigrants. The aid will take the form of an emergency appropriation for legal assistance for people who might be targeted by immigration authorities.
City Council member Greg Casar announced at a news conference in north Austin that the proposed legal aid would be on the council’s agenda next week.
Casar called ICE’s actions “reprehensible” acts of “retribution” from Gov. Greg Abbott, President Donald Trump “and their ilk” as part of their efforts to crack down on so-called sanctuary cities.
“These ICE actions are politically motivated and morally bankrupt,” Casar said.
Some Austin school district teachers Friday passed out fliers about immigrants’ rights and about how to react if ICE agents come knocking on their doors.
ICE officials were forced to acknowledge the enforcement action in Austin in part because one of their agents was injured during the Friday morning detention.
ICE agent injured
Officials described the injuries as minor. The agent was treated and released.
Two women were also arrested in the incident on warrants, Austin police said.
Austin police were called to the scene, but by the time they got there, the situation appeared to be under control and the ICE agent had detained Baltazar-Ramirez, officials said.
It appears Austin police have been kept in the dark about ICE operations in the city. Interim Police Chief Brian Manley said ICE didn’t notify police of any new operation in Austin.
“We were not aware that there was an operation going on,” Manley said.
He denied comments circulating on social media that Austin police were assisting ICE agents, who have been spotted making arrests across Austin.