Members of the Austin City Council responded with concern this week over how the Austin Police Department will update policy on how officers contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Many suggested that the city can find a way to minimize police contacts with federal immigration agents, despite state laws that stop cities from prohibiting local police from cooperating with ICE.
The planned policy change comes after APD turned over a Honduran woman and her 5-year-old child to ICE earlier this month. Police said they called federal agents after discovering during a routine background check that the woman had an ICE "administrative warrant.” According to advocates, the pair has since been deported to Honduras.
City records reveal this was one of several dozen times APD called ICE on similar warrants in the past year.
Some local elected officials said future APD policies should limit local police interaction with ICE.
“We share a commitment to doing everything we can to keep immigration enforcement out of the relationship between our constituents and our police,” City Council Members Krista Laine, Mike Siegel, Paige Ellis and Zohaib “Zo” Qadri wrote in a joint statement. "What's the law is not always the same as what's right."
On Tuesday, APD Chief Lisa Davis told The Texas Newsroom that the department was working on a policy update to clarify where they stood after the mother and daughter’s arrest. Davis said the update was needed because ICE had flooded national criminal databases with warrants like the kind used to detain the pair since Donald Trump’s re-election, and officers needed new guidance on what to do.
In her interview, Chief Davis said the new policy would clarify that APD cannot stop officers from reporting people to ICE when they encounter an administrative warrant. But she added the policy should mandate that officers contact their shift commanders before making the call to ICE. The commander would then decide whether the officer stays put while ICE agents respond, she said.
“The officer may want to call ICE and may opt to do that,” Davis said. “The decision to remain on scene will be with the commander. The decision to wait would be on a commander.”
Elected officials react
At the center of this issue are so-called administrative warrants, which federal agents routinely issue to flag someone who may have violated civil immigration law. Some local officers are notifying ICE when they encounter people with one of these warrants, including in the case of the Honduran mother.
City council members hope any local policies make these instances rare.
“We have to be very careful in our decisions when to call ICE about the administrative warrants,” Austin City Council Member José “Chito” Vela told The Texas Newsroom on Wednesday. “Because of [state law], we cannot adopt a blanket policy of ‘we can’t call ICE,’ so we have to be very judicious about the policy that we do adopt and make sure it’s an exceptional circumstance.”
On Instagram, Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said now that officers have access to administrative warrants “the question is what can, should and may they be doing.”
“We are waiting on city legal to issue their official advice,” she added. “There are nuances here we are still unpacking the legality around it.”
State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, an Austin Democrat who represents the district where the Honduran mother lived, also weighed in in an emailed statement.
“Federal immigration laws should be enforced by federal authorities under clear and consistent standards, not shifted onto local departments through vague or unevenly applied agreements,” she said.
What the memos say
Anticipating the policy change, lawyers with the city of Austin on Wednesday issued a legal memo laying out what state law requires of local police.
Calling some aspects of state law “nuanced,” the memo noted that courts have found “that cooperation or assistance [with ICE] could be limited based on immigration neutral policies adopted by the local entity, e.g. if providing such cooperation unduly strained resources by requiring overtime or patrols outside of the jurisdiction.”
Cities “cannot broadly prohibit or materially limit peace officers from communicating with immigration officials,” the memo stated. But added: “The court recognized that cooperation or assistance provided by local officers must be made in response to a request from a federal official, and the assistance or cooperation provided may be limited to what is ‘reasonable or necessary.’”
In her interview with The Texas Newsroom, Chief Davis said staffing was among her concerns when it comes to Austin police interacting with federal agents.
“It just makes it more complicated for the officer and certainly for a police chief who understands that we are several hundred officers down and do not have the time or resources to spend on this,” she said.
Also Wednesday, Davis sent the deputy city manager a two-page memo outlining their next steps. She said APD will "update the policy to provide clearer guidance for officers and supervisors on the handling of administrative warrants.”
She added while state law requires local police to assist “when called upon,” APD does not “proactively engage in immigration enforcement initiatives.”
“We do recognize the concern and fear these situations can create within our community," she wrote. “APD will continue to engage in open dialogue and meaningful policy development that follows the law and maintains the city of Austin’s core values.”
