IDEA Rundberg students led a walkout on Wednesday in protest of ICE enforcement after the recent Austin shooting.
AUSTIN, Texas — Austin City Council Member Chito Vela said the city is seeing a surge in immigration arrests, with ICE activity increasing significantly in recent months, particularly in North Austin.
Vela, who represents District 4, said that based on conversations with constituents and immigration attorneys, he believes ICE arrests in Austin have increased three to four times above what the city typically sees.
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He estimates that means Austin has gone from roughly a dozen arrests a day to a few dozen a day. However, Vela said the city does not receive firm arrest numbers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Over the last 60 days or so, we’ve seen roving ICE patrols using racial profiling as a basis to approach people at gas stations, in the parking lots of grocery stores and shopping centers,” Vela said. “That’s something we have not seen before in Austin.”
Vela said the way ICE operates in Austin has also changed.
He said that just months ago, ICE enforcement primarily involved detaining people who were already in jail. He said enforcement later expanded to include some encounters in which Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers contacted ICE about people without proper immigration documents.
Now, Vela said, ICE agents are operating more independently, and he is questioning whether some of those encounters are constitutional.
“As an ICE agent, you cannot just go up to someone that you think looks foreign in a diverse American city and use that as a basis for detention or arrest,” Vela said.
Last month, some Austin City Council members posted a list of locations they described as ICE enforcement “hot spots.”
It includes, Rundberg Lane, Metric Boulevard, Research Boulevard, North Lamar, Burnet Road and Cameron Road.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson has also said city officials have been made aware of a “pretty significant” increase in ICE detentions and contacts with people in Austin.
Some people in those communities say they are feeling the pressure.
A small group of students at IDEA Rundberg Academy and College Preparatory walked out of school Tuesday to protest ICE enforcement and the recent shooting of Wilber Garces Perez.
One 13-year-old student said the shooting happened near her home. She had a message for President Donald Trump.
“I hope he sees this and feels something, at least something, to see what he’s doing to families,” Natalie Diaz said. “I want him to imagine if that was his mom, his dad, his daughter, anything — to stop this now.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says ICE is enforcing federal immigration laws passed by Congress and that the agency will not slow down or leave Austin.