{"id":301243,"date":"2026-05-20T11:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/301243\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:51:10","slug":"austin-leaders-divided-on-what-rules-for-police-and-ice-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/301243\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin leaders divided on what rules for police and ICE mean"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been about a month since Austin revised its rules<\/a> on how city police can interact with federal immigration agents \u2014 and city leaders are divided on what the change actually means.<\/p>\n

The rules used to say<\/a> that Austin police \u201cmust\u201d contact a supervisor if they encounter someone who they believe to be undocumented and they plan to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Now, the rules say that police \u201cshould, when operationally feasible,\u201d do so.<\/p>\n

The change came after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to pull millions of dollars in state grants from Austin<\/a>, claiming the city was not in compliance with Senate Bill 4. The law, which passed in 2017, prohibits police departments from telling officers they cannot contact ICE.<\/p>\n

Other Texas cities, like Houston<\/a> and Dallas<\/a>, faced similar threats from Abbott and have adjusted their rules.<\/p>\n

Austin City Council Member Chito Vela argues that the new language gives officers the appropriate amount of discretion.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould is not shall, not must call, it\u2019s not will call,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the Austin Police Department is also short-staffed, and it should be prioritizing local matters, like violent crimes, property crimes and patrolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven that we are 300 officers short, I do not see how it will be operationally feasible for our patrol officers to take time out of their patrol and communicate with ICE,\u201d Vela said.<\/p>\n

But Vela\u2019s fellow City Council Member Mike Siegel disagrees.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the amended general orders, Austin police will call ICE more frequently, which will result in more members of our community being detained and deported,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd at the same time, drawing our officers away from solving real public safety concerns, like active 911 calls.\u201d<\/p>\n

So can Austinites call 911 without worrying about whether ICE might get involved?<\/p>\n

Police union says things won\u2019t change\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Bullock, president of the Austin Police Association, said yes \u2014 and that it\u2019s always been that way.<\/p>\n

The issue is what happens when police come across someone who has an \u201cadministrative warrant.\u201d These \u201cwarrants\u201d are a document indicating the person might have committed an immigration violation, not a crime.<\/p>\n

According to Bullock, officers have never considered those to be an immediate concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnless [911 callers] have an active warrant for a violent felony, we are going to divert our attention to the most immediate task, and that\u2019s been the practice,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been what our department has done historically.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, he said, people should feel safe calling 911.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdministrative immigration things, if you’re the victim of a crime, is not what we are focused on,\u201d Bullock said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on the criminal. That’s what we\u2019re focused on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Austin Police Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Striking a balance\u00a0<\/p>\n

Critics worry that the city\u2019s recent rule change means that what happened to an Austin woman from Honduras back in January might be repeated.<\/p>\n

The woman called 911 to report a domestic disturbance, and she and her 5-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, were later both deported.<\/p>\n

The incident sparked outrage.<\/a> And during a February public hearing, people called on the city to do more to protect people from ICE enforcement.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of residents yelled and booed as Police Chief Lisa Davis and several council members tried to talk with residents about immigration enforcement in Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a rule of law that I have to follow as a chief of police here in the state of Texas,\u201d Davis told the crowd in February.<\/p>\n

Safe to call\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin City Council members are looking for other ways to put up guardrails that protect people who are undocumented.<\/p>\n

Last month, they adopted a resolution to create a working group that would create more rules around police interactions with ICE. <\/p>\n

The working group will also explore how to ensure that people can call authorities without fear of getting arrested for other noncriminal matters, like civil warrants for unpaid fees.<\/p>\n

Daniela Silva with the advocacy group Workers Defense Action Fund said it’s a start.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that this resolution is a really great first step in working to really rebuild that trust,\u201d Silva said. \u201cAnd communicate to Austinites that our institutions, that are there to protect people, really want to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for now, the working group doesn\u2019t have the power to change any rules or tell police what to do. And the group has yet to convene its first meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been about a month since Austin revised its rules on how city police can interact with federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9258,109440,132,1501,134,109441,133,4761,1223,10533,3670,109442,1829],"class_list":["post-301243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-apd","tag-apd-general-orders","tag-austin","tag-austin-city-council","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-ice-enforcement","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-police-department","tag-austin-texas","tag-austin-tx","tag-chito-vela","tag-daniela-silva","tag-ice"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}