U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) have set up shop in a small Central Texas town on the outskirts of Austin. The City of Buda recently posted that federal immigration enforcement agents plan to temporarily park a transport vehicle downtown on Thursday, January 15.

The city said that federal immigration agents intend to use the vehicle, parked at city hall, as a central location while conducting their own operations in surrounding areas. Buda officials requested that the transport bus be relocated to free up limited public parking and the agents complied, according to the city’s Facebook post.

The City of Buda added that neither the city or the Buda Police Department are involved with the operation. A Buda city spokesperson told MySA that the ICE transport vehicle was originally moved to the city’s Historic Stagecoach Park, but to their knowledge it is no longer located there.

“The City will continue to prioritize transparency while sharing information that is accurate and confirmed as it becomes available to us,” Buda officials wrote in the post.

Buda, located in Hays County, is a small city right outside of South Austin. It has a population of about 16,000 residents, a majority of which (nearly 78%) are white and more than 31% identify as Hispanic or Latino, according to U.S. Census Bureau 2024 data.

It’s unclear how long federal immigration agents will be in Buda, but the department has heightened operations in the Austin-area over the past year.

ICE arrested five people during a protest in Austin on January 11. They have since been released but four face charges of obstructing a highway, while the fifth is charged with interfering with public duties.

Earlier this year, 5-year-old Génesis Ester Gutiérrez Castellanos and her mother were arrested by ICE agents in Austin on January 5 despite family members saying Génesis is a U.S. citizen. There has yet to be an update on her case as of Thursday, January 15.

MySA reached out to ICE and the City of Buda for comment.

This article originally published at Texas city warns of ICE presence in small town near Austin.