AUSTIN, Texas — Four construction workers were detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday morning following a traffic stop conducted by the Texas Department of Public Safety outside Austin City Hall, prompting condemnation from Austin City Council members and immigrant-rights advocates.
The arrests happened outside City Hall while council members were inside discussing the city’s budget. By Thursday evening, family members of the four people detained did not know where they had been taken, according to activists.
Cell phone video recorded by the advocacy group ICE Out of Austin captured part of the arrests outside City Hall.
According to DPS, the incident occurred just before 9:30 a.m. when troopers assigned to the Capitol Region observed a vehicle driving the wrong way on a one-way street at Guadalupe Street and Cesar Chavez Street, near Austin City Hall.
In a statement to CBS Austin, DPS said the driver did not have a valid driver’s license. Troopers on scene, who are federally certified Designated Immigration Officers under the 287(g) program, determined that all four people in the vehicle were not lawfully present in the United States.
DPS said ICE was contacted for assistance and took all four individuals into custody.
ALSO | Austin ISD to detail new bus hub routes ahead of first day of school.
The driver was issued a citation for driving without a driver’s license and a warning for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, according to DPS.
For additional information about the four individuals, DPS referred questions to ICE.
ICE Out of Austin organizer Sabina Hinz-Foley Trejo said the organization heard from a relative of one of the people who was detained.
“One of the persons detained’s family member contacted us and let us know that they were on the phone with them while they were being pulled over,” Trejo said.
She said ICE agents arrived within minutes of the traffic stop.
“ICE agents arrived on the scene within three to four minutes and took away their phones,” she said.
Earlier Thursday, Austin City Council Members Vanessa Fuentes, José Velásquez and Zohaib “Zo” Qadri released a joint statement condemning the operation. The council members said the Austin Police Department was not involved.
“We condemn this weaponization of law enforcement in the strongest possible terms. Our immigrant neighbors belong here. Period,” the statement read.
Qadri later said learning about the arrests while council members were meeting inside City Hall was deeply upsetting.
“It’s our fellow Austinite. It was such a shock to hear that while we were sitting there around the budget, there were four people whose lives were going to be changed forever, that their family members’ lives were going to be shaken forever,” Qadri said.
He added: “It really bothered a lot of us to our core, and we just wanted to speak out about the brutality that we’ve been seeing in this city, in this state and in this country.”
Council Member Mike Siegel also condemned the arrests in a statement.
“This state-sponsored kidnapping exemplifies the cruelty and injustice of our nation’s treatment of immigrant members of our community. We condemn this action by DPS, and we condemn the continuing collaboration between local and state police and ICE,” Siegel said.
CBS Austin has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for additional information about those detained and is awaiting a response.