Neighbors in Central Austin are worried about Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a video posted on social media showed a car that crashed into the front lawn of a house after its driver tried to escape ICE. A second video shows a man detained by masked officers.
Clay Crenshaw said he heard a loud noise outside his home in the North Loop neighborhood on Monday morning. When he looked out the window, Crenshaw said he saw a car in his front yard and an armed man was looking around.
He learned that ICE had chased down a driver through his neighborhood and into his yard. The car did not crash into his house, but Crenshaw said he was upset about the immigration operation.
“There was definitely some very dangerous, inappropriately fast driving happening during this operation on a street that is usually very packed with pedestrians,” Crenshaw said. “Thankfully, there was nobody. No pedestrians were involved.”
A spokesperson with the Austin Police Department confirmed the incident happened and said none of the vehicles involved in the chase were marked as law enforcement vehicles. “When APD arrived on scene, they discovered that federal ICE agents had initiated a short vehicle pursuit," the spokesperson said.
Crenshaw said he was told by his neighbors that the chase lasted at least two blocks and ended on West 55 1/2 Street.
The description matches a video posted on a website designed to report ICE sightings. The video, taken from inside a house, shows at least three armed men with covered faces pinning down another man to the ground.
Neighbors surprised to come face to face with ICE operations
Sam Law, who lives in the area, saw the video and decided to post it on social media.
“A lot of people in Austin don't understand the scale and violence of immigration detention that happens in our own backyard and the enforcement that's going on,” Law said. “They think of it as something that is happening in different cities.”
He said he was aware of ICE operations in Austin in other parts of the city, but not in the neighborhood, an area known for its quirky shops and small businesses. Law said he knew people would care about ICE operations expanding to new parts of the city.
“It seems not like the kind of place [where] you're expecting masked federal agents to be tackling people or leading high speed car chases through the neighborhood,” Law said.
Crenshaw said some of his neighbors are feeling worried about ICE operations in the area, especially for Hispanic neighbors — even those who are U.S. citizens.
“This neighborhood is very, very politically progressive," he said. "So it’s not that surprising that everyone is just pretty angry about this."
Neighbors prepare for future possible ICE action
Crenshaw said an ICE officer drove the car out of his yard and down the street for it to be towed. He said APD assisted him with what steps to take next in case he wanted to file a complaint, but he said he doesn’t want to waste energy on pursuing legal action against the federal government.
Law and other neighbors have been meeting to discuss how they can help neighbors who are detained by ICE. He wants people to be prepared and have the right information in case they witness a detention.
“We don't know what would have happened in this video if this guy had gone outside and blown his whistles and neighbors had shown up and been able to document — maybe get the name of the person who was being detained, get information to his family,” he said.
Concerns were raised last month about the level of APD's cooperation with ICE. A police spokesperson said the department did not detain or arrest anyone and that officers left the scene after assistance was not needed.
KUT News reached out to ICE for information on the arrest, but has not heard back.
