Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “targeted enforcement actions” in Austin have raised questions about how the federal government is operating in the city — and to what extent local government is involved.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis spoke with KUT's Jennifer Stayton on Morning Edition about what APD is and isn’t doing related to immigration.
Below is a transcript of the conversation. It has been lightly edited for clarity.
Interview highlights
Jennifer Stayton: Does APD play any role when Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Drug Enforcement Administration; or any other federal agents or agencies carry out actions in Austin to apprehend and arrest people here without documentation?
Lisa Davis: APD does not enforce immigration laws. That is a federal function. APD may be called to assist with a traffic post or some kind of post reflective of that, of what they're doing, but we do not personally take any part in any immigration arrests or immigration, you know, task forces, anything like that.
Stayton: So when you say, may be asked to participate in a traffic post related to that, can you clarify what that means?
Davis: Yeah, so I mean if there's a huge, you know, if they're doing something and they call and say, hey, we're going to be here and — but I can tell you that has not happened. We do not have the resources, when you talk about resources here, we are slim in the resource department for sure. So we know calls for services are held. We just don't have the resources for that. But I'm thinking, what could that look like? That could be a scenario.
Stayton: Are you notified or is APD notified at all before any kind of immigration enforcement action is going to be carried out by federal agencies?
Davis: Yeah, so we reached out, you know, we have federal partnerships that we work all the time. I mean, we work closely with the DEA for drugs, FBI, ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], all of those partners. We reached out to HSI and the enforcement arm of ICE to meet with them, to sit down and kind of figure out what's going on because we're hearing things as well.
They do notify us when they are going to be in Austin. They do not tell us specifics on where they're going to be, but they do let us know that they are in the area.
Stayton: HSI, what does that stand for?
Davis: Homeland Security investigation. So HSI is a large umbrella, Homeland Security, but ICE falls under that umbrella.
Stayton: Do you have any information about how many people in the Austin area who are here without documentation, how many of them may have been taken or apprehended so far?
Davis: No, I do not have that information.
Stayton: Is that the kind of information that ever gets shared with you?
Davis: I would think at some point that that's public information, that we can get that, and it will be helpful, but right now we do not have that. And again, we're called to let us know that they're in the area. Which I believe, this is kind of the strange part about this. I believe even under the Biden administration and other administrations, this was happening daily. I think what's changed is just talking about it. And the fact that we now know this is occurring instead of it being more hidden.
Stayton: Well, and certainly the promises ahead of time of, on a very, very, very large scale that I think had some people wondering and maybe concerned about what that might look like and how that might impact especially cities like Austin. Can you define what a sanctuary city is, and if Austin is considered a sanctuary city?
Davis: I think a sanctuary city, as far as I understand it, is — it's what every city is. We don't, it's not our priority, and immigration is the function of the federal government. It is not the function of the local police department, and my function is to keep Austin safe. From the very beginning, before I even got here, that was my game plan, was to come here and truly look at crime within the City of Austin and address the crime.
So that to me means it's a sanctuary city, is we don't enforce those federal — it's not our role to do that.
Stayton: There may be some folks who federal agents come to arrest for warrants that they have that may also be on your radar screen for other allegations or charges here. So if that's the case —
Davis: Well, so if we were to arrest somebody on a charge, we don't ask immigration status, and I think that's probably, when you talk about the sanctuary city as well, that kind of goes hand in hand with that.
But that's done at the jail. That is a function of the jail. That is not something we do.
Stayton: Immigration is a federal function, not local police department function. If the Texas Legislature were to pass a bill that would require departments to assist, what might that mean? What would APD have to do?
Davis: That is what we're concerned about, right? If this bill passes and what it's going to look like. If it's a federal law and it's an obligation we have, we'll have to do that. But again, immigration does not fall — that is a federal authority. That'll be an issue across the country that we have. And certainly here in the state of Texas, the rules are a little different than other states that you're looking at, but APD will comply with the laws. But again, our priority and staffing that we have, the priority is and will always be about making Austin safe.
Stayton: Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis, thank you for your time and your discussion today.
Davis: Thank you.