Federal agencies conducted immigration related “targeted enforcement actions” in Austin Sunday, a Drug Enforcement Agency spokesperson said in a statement. The DEA’s Houston division assisted the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and additional unnamed federal law enforcement partners with the actions.
Around 50 people gathered on the South steps of the Texas Capitol for about two hours Sunday to protest the actions and arrests, according to a Department of Public Safety Trooper.
Operations were also conducted in San Antonio, Houston, McAllen and Brownsville, DEA confirmed. The operations come after The Washington Post reported that Trump administration officials informed ICE field offices they would need to meet a minimum quota of immigration arrests per day, amounting to over a thousand arrests per day nationally.
TSTV News was referred to Monica Yoas, a public affairs officer with ICE, for additional questions. When Yoas was contacted, she said that ICE was “only speaking to national media affiliates and local news outlets” at the time.
When informed that TSTV News conducted local reporting regularly, Yoas reiterated that ICE was not speaking to student outlets and provided an email to “potentially” provide information at a later date.
Yoas has not yet responded to a follow-up email.
A Public Information Officer with the Austin Police Department said Sunday that he “did not know off the top of his head” if APD was involved in any of the operations. He declined to give any additional information and referred TSTV News to information officers available during regular operating hours.
This is a developing story, and TSTV News will update this article as information becomes available.