Posted on 02/10/2017 7:55:51 PM PST by 11th_VA
AUSTIN - After a day of reports surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions at various locations throughout Austin, Congressman Joaquin Castro confirmed a targeted operation by ICE in South and Central Texas. The Mexican Consulate of Austin has since confirmed 44 Mexican immigrants were detained in the past 48 hours in Austin.
Heres a look at what KVUE knows about the situation: Immigration officer incident
Early Friday morning, an incident was reported between an immigration officer and another person. Austin Police said the incident started after a traffic stop was made by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer that then turned physical.
KVUE spoke with the mother-in-law, Teresa Velazquez, of the man who was eventually detained and she said an ICE officer claimed to have a warrant and tried to detain the man. After running, the man and the immigrations officer ended up in a physical confrontation.
As Friday morning continued to roll on, social media began to fill with posts from people reporting ICE raids and arrests throughout the community. KVUE began investigating the reports with law enforcement and Defender Tony Plohetski talked to law enforcement sources at the federal, state, and local levels and none reported any operations outside of their daily action.
As a federal agency, ICE has jurisdiction and doesnt have to tell us when they are conducting operations in Austin, APD Interim Chief Brian Manley said Friday. Ive not been made aware that anything is different.
ICE released a statement Friday that read:
ICE conducts operations daily nationwide. ICE does not conduct random sweeps; all ICE operations are based on investigative leads. By removing from the streets criminal aliens and other threats to the public, ICE helps improve public safety.
Shortly before noon Friday, Austin City Councilman Gregorio Casar said in a statement on social media that his office had confirmed a large amount of Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in Austin.
Casar continued in his statement saying, ICE is out in public arresting people in order to retaliate against our community for standing up for our values against people like Abbott and Trump.
At a press conference later, Casar said he confirmed the raids through the media.
Multiple members, I think, of the media here reported on an arrest this morning and multiple members of the media here reported on the video that happened right up the street here at Whataburger, so that is another public ICE action, Casar said. As you heard from multiple speakers with years of experience these sorts of public arrests are clear demonstrations of trying to intimidate the community.
Texas State Senator Dawn Buckingham took to Facebook Friday afternoon called Casar's statements, "outrageous."
"Not only does questioning law enforcement put our communities at risk, it paints a bull's-eye on the backs of the brave men and women sworn to protect us under extremely challenging circumstances," Buckingham said on Facebook.
As morning turned to afternoon, a video began to make the rounds on social media of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest that took place Friday morning. The arrest was captured on video by a Central Texas man near the intersection of Lamar Avenue and Rundberg Lane.
The video showed multiple pickup trucks surrounding a black pickup truck with ICE officers working around the truck and at least one person in custody. A minivan and a full-size van both appeared on the scene before the video ended.
The video was viewed more than half a million times by Friday evening and had been shared almost 20,000 times.
Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) released the following statement Friday evening:
"I have been informed by ICE that the agencys San Antonio field office has launched a targeted operation in South and Central Texas as part of Operation Cross Check. I am asking ICE to clarify whether these individuals are in fact dangerous, violent threats to our communities, and not people who are here peacefully raising families and contributing to our state. I will continue to monitor this situation."
An ICE operation in 2015 named "Cross Check" lasted five days and resulted in more than 2,000 convicted criminal aliens being arrested across the nation. ICE also conducted an operation called "Cross Check" in 2012 that resulted in more than 3,000 criminal aliens and others being arrested.
Immigration lawyer Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch indicated one of the biggest problems facing the immigrant community is a lack of clarity over who may be targeted.
Under the Obama administration, we understood who the priorities for enforcement were for the agency, Lincoln-Goldfinch said. We had memos that laid it out that said felons, people with significant misdemeanors, recent immigration violations. These are the people that the agency wants to deport.
Lincoln-Goldfinch continued, Now, under the Trump Administration, under the executive actions, everyone who is in the U.S. who is undocumented is an enforcement priority for the agency. So essentially, no one is safe; even people who have clear criminal histories.
In a Friday evening press conference, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley again said that ICE has legal jurisdiction in the area and that means ICE can conduct actions without checking in with police beforehand.
Still, Manley said that APDs purpose is to keep all residents of Austin safe, regardless of their citizenship status. I want to reach out to the immigrant community and reaffirm that we are here for you as we are here for anybody else in our community, Manley said.
The chief said that immigrants should not be fearful to reach out to Austin Police and that police officers are not concerned about a persons citizenship status and is instead, absolutely, 100 percent focused on the safety of citizens.
Gov. Abbott, if you get too efficient you will have to give money back to Austin’s nutty sheriff.
Funny how these idiots were all scared of Trump creating a “Deportation Force”.
I guess they didn’t know we already have one.
That's exactly what's going on. ICE sweeps like this are still focused on the worst illegals. It's like the daily body count when President Bush was in office. That stopped immediately after Hussein took office.
ICE conducts operations daily nationwide. ICE does not conduct random sweeps; all ICE operations are based on investigative leads. By removing from the streets criminal aliens and other threats to the public, ICE helps improve public safety.
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Why would anyone have any problems with this?
No matter how dangerous they are, liberals want to show the world we are better than they are. Keep them here no matter what, no matter how many Americans have to die.
Liberals really are that stupid.
Unless the law has changed that is the law. Used to be used as a carrot to get illegals to self deport or agree to deportation without court hearing. The stick was if they were court ordered to deport they could never legally return. When that was enforced they did not clog up the courts because they wanted to try to come back legally.
Or they just blew off their hearing date, like 90+% of their countrymen and went back to the trailer they share with a dozen other illegals where they remain to this day. The administrative law judges were complicit in this nose-thumbing at the law.
You’ve got to go back Paco.
We stood up for OUR values, Casar, when we voted Trump into office. Unlike Mexico and much of Latin America, we do not believe in resorting to violence in order to effect influence in politics. Either you do, or you don't. Someone in the media needs to ask this guy point blank if he believes it is okay to use violence to thwart the will of the U.S. citizens who voted for illegal immigration to be controlled.
If he doesn't, then he needs to tell his constituency to stand down. If he does believe in violence, simply tell us truthfully that he does. The answer has to be one way or the other. ASK HIM.
Ohhhh, not President Number 44? This is good too but I was excited for a moment.
LOL! Funny if it weren't so sad - always blaming the purveyors of law and order instead of the criminals....
And that communist Castro, we need to make him non-existent, ignored and as about as small as a flea. As well as his other brother and biotch mama.
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