This blog on Texas education contains posts on accountability, testing, K-12 education, postsecondary educational attainment, dropouts, bilingual education, immigration, school finance, environmental issues, Ethnic Studies at state and national levels. It also represents my digital footprint, of life and career, as a community-engaged scholar in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler addresses a rally for immigrants at Austin City Hall
Several hundred people — many of them wearing “Don’t mess with Texas
families” T-shirts — assembled at Austin City Hall Sunday morning, in
support of immigrant families who are undocumented or have mixed status.
Adler, wearing a safety pin to show his solidarity, said he stood with other mayors who have pledged to safeguard immigrants during a Trump presidency.
“This week a lot of mayors stepped forward to assure their
communities that they will protect their communities,” said Adler. “You
are not alone. … In Austin we will continue to be a city where neighbors
care for each other.”
But Adler was not specific in how the city would protect immigrants that could be targeted by the Trump administration. In an interview
with “CBS News Sunday,” President-elect Donald Trump said he would
launch the largest mass deportation in modern history. Trump plans to
target up to 3 million undocumented immigrants with criminal records.
But experts estimate that the number of undocumented immigrants with
criminal records is closer to 820,000 not 3 million. That figure could
also include people with minor infractions and those who’ve been
prosecuted for immigration-related crimes such as illegal entry.
Trump has also said
that during his first 100 days in the White House, he will cancel all
federal funding for sanctuary cities, though he failed to explain what
constitutes a sanctuary city. The term “sanctuary city” has no legal
definition but many use it when referring to cities and counties that
have policies in place to prevent law enforcement from targeting
undocumented immigrants.
In the last few days days, New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and
Philadelphia have pledged to remain immigrant-friendly communities
despite the threat from President-elect Donald Trump.
During the rally, Adler was careful to avoid the phrase “sanctuary
city.” But Austin is poised to sever ties with immigration authorities
at the county jail. Incoming Travis County sheriff, Sally Hernandez, has
promised to do away with a policy of cooperating with U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement by flagging certain undocumented immigrants for
possible deportation. If she reneges, Austin City Councilman Greg Casar
said the city council could end its contract with the county jail and
pull its inmates out.
In an August interview with the Texas Tribune,
Hernandez said that holding immigrants in the jail for immigration
authorities when they have no pending charges wouldn’t make the country
safer. She said that good policing involves encouraging immigrants to
come forward and report crimes to the police.
Eugenio del Bosque
Several hundred attended a rally at Austin City Hall in favor of immigrant rights
Austin also has a growing church-based sanctuary movement ready to take in more undocumented families seeking relief from deportation.
At the rally, Cristina Tzintzun, a longtime immigrant rights activist
and former head of the Workers Defense Project, gave an emotional
speech. Tzintzun said she would give birth to her first child in
January, the month that Trump takes office. Her husband is undocumented
and she fears that her family will be broken apart. “I know that Texas
will be ground zero for every program to demonize my family,” she said.
“What will I tell my son? I won’t be able to say, ‘Everything is going
to be alright,’” she said. “But I do know that the arc of history is
long, but it bends toward justice.”
Emily Herrington and her husband Brad Gray were at the rally with their two toddlers in strollers.
“We’ve been too complacent,” said Gray. “But now we’re here. We don’t
have a lot of money to give, but we’re ready to get involved.”
Melissa del Bosque is a staff writer and a 2015-16 Lannan Fellow at The Investigative Fund.
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