Blue cities in red states debate over how to respond to efforts to resist ICE : NPR
While cities in blue states like Minnesota and California resist ICE enforcement, some Democratic-led cities in red states, like Austin, Texas, are engaged in a heated debate over how to respond.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
In many Republican-led states, police are required to cooperate with federal immigration agents. And that leaves liberal cities in these conservative states wondering how to respond when they don’t want to spend time on immigration enforcement. Mose Buchele of member station KUT gives us a view of Austin, Texas.
MOSE BUCHELE, BYLINE: City Council members recently opened a public forum here with a phrase they repeat often: In Austin, undocumented immigrants should be able to call the police without fear of being deported. This is Chito Vela, Acting Mayor of Austin.
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CHITO VELA: We are committed to ensuring that our immigrant community is as safe and supported as possible.
BUCHELE: But in Texas, there are few options to prevent police from reporting people to ICE. In one recent case, a mother and her young daughter were evicted after the mother called local police to report an incident. Stopping this kind of thing was the goal of this meeting with Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis.
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VELA: With that said, let me turn the call over to Chief Davis.
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LISA DAVIS: Thanks for being here. It’s amazing to see this show-out.
BUCHELE: In Texas, state police have the authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Many counties partner with ICE for grants and funding. These agreements will become mandatory for all counties by the end of the year. And Davis said Texas cities can’t stop local agents from calling ICE if they see fit.
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DAVIS: There is a rule of law that I must follow as chief of police here in the state of Texas. But what can we do…
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DAVIS: What we can do is create…
BUCHELE: It was a tense evening. On one side, local officials explaining that breaking state law could lead to funding cuts or their removal from office, on the other side, many participants calling for resistance, whatever the cost. Robert Salter (ph) is a criminal lawyer who was one of the loudest that night.
ROBERT SALTER: Nothing stops this police chief, these city councilors from refusing to cooperate with the state.
BUCHELE: Heated public debates like this have also erupted in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston. Democratic cities in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida are also seeing their residents oppose red state laws that mandate ICE law enforcement partnerships. Kristin Etter is director of the Texas Immigration Law Council. She says many more people are detained in states that have these policies.
KRISTIN ETTER: It’s not visible. This doesn’t present itself the same way as in Minneapolis, Chicago or Los Angeles. And so, again, most people have no idea that this is happening around us every day in a very silent way.
BUCHELE: Calm, at least until people start screaming.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (singing) Fix things.
DAVIS: Sir.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (singing) Fix things, make things right.
BUCHELE: At this public meeting in Austin, Police Chief Lisa Davis announced plans to change the city’s policy. Agents can still contact ICE. But the new rules will give law enforcement the right to decide whether they can detain people until ICE arrives to arrest them.
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DAVIS: And I can tell you, the priority is not to wait for ICE to respond about a civilian detainer.
BUCHELE: Officials think it’s a way to bridge local priorities with state law. But after the event, immigrant advocate Carmen Zubieta (ph) said that wouldn’t help people who fear deportation feel more comfortable calling the police for help.
CARMEN ZUBIETA: (speaking Spanish).
BUCHELE: “To gain confidence, you have to earn it. And nothing they do gives us confidence,” she said.
For NPR News, I’m Mose Buchele in Austin.
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