Friends:
The news that 85,000 Travis County residents could be impacted by forthcoming immigration raids should pierce every one of our hearts. Behind that number are mothers, fathers, children, and elders—neighbors who build our homes, prepare our restaurant food, care for our children, and enrich our classrooms, culture, and society.
According to a recent report by Gelatt, Ruiz Soto, & Bachmeier (2025) of the Migration Policy Institute, nearly a quarter of these residents are parents to 23,000 U.S. citizen children, and another 25,000 are married to citizens or permanent residents. These are not strangers. They are the fabric of Central Texas.And yet, in the face of intensifying raids and detentions, their humanity is being tested again.
As journalist Emiliano Tahui Gómez, notes in today's Austin American-Statesman, this new wave of enforcement could tear families apart, destabilizing our schools, workplaces, and communities. More than three in five of those now threatened have lived here ten years or more, meaning that deportations will not remove “outsiders” but will instead uproot longtime community members—many of whom are homeowners and all of them taxpayers.
We cannot allow fear to replace solidarity. Every deportation is a traumatized child left to cry at night, a parent missing at the dinner table, a classroom suddenly emptier.
We are better than this as a country. Compassion and just, not brutal, policy must be the norm. If we are to live up to the promise of democracy, we must hold our leaders accountable. Vote out those who govern with animus, and lift up those who lead with empathy.
Our neighbors deserve safety, dignity, and belonging—not raids and removals. The measure of a nation is not how it treats the powerful, but how it protects the vulnerable.
-Angela Valenzuela
Reference
Gelatt, J. Ruiz Soto, A. G., & Bachmeier, J. D. (2025, Oct.) Changing Origins, Rising Numbers: Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States, Migration Policy Institute, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/unauthorized-immigrants-us-2025-fact-sheet
A new analysis shows unauthorized immigrants are deeply rooted — as parents, workers, homeowners — in Central Texas
Work continues in the new Texas Football indoor practice facility on campus across from the Moody Center, near the stadium, Oct. 30, 2025.Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Some 85,000 Travis County residents could be affected by upcoming immigration enforcement actions — and those arrests could be felt by tens of thousands more, including children and spouses.
That’s according to an analysis released this month by the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The report examined people living without legal status or with temporary discretionary status in the U.S. The 85,000 residents affected in Travis County represents about 6% of the total population. These migrants are parents to an estimated 23,000 U.S. citizen children under 18 and are married to 25,000 U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
Recently: Austin mother fled after her son was killed in Nicaragua. Now the US wants to deport her
The analysis, based on 2023 U.S. Census American Community data, highlights how deeply unauthorized immigrants are integrated into local communities, said Valerie Lacarte, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. Lacarte noted that many have lived in the United States for significant portions of their lives — a trend reflected across Texas and other Central Texas counties, including Travis, Williamson and Bexar.
“It shows that there will be a lot more people that will be affected than those we think,” Lacarte told the American-Statesman. “The reality is that in the public space, you don’t really associate with people based on what their paperwork says.”
The report defined “unauthorized immigrants” as individuals who entered without authorization or overstayed a visa, as well as those without long-term protected status. That includes people who entered under Temporary Protected Status or parole programs — two discretionary avenues expanded during the Biden administration but largely rolled back by the Trump administration, creating a growing population of newly unauthorized immigrants. Although not all these immigrants entered without authorization, some may now lack status, or be at risk of losing it.
It also includes individuals enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which provides temporary protection for people illegally brought to the U.S. as children.
The report comes as recent polling shows a slight majority of Texans continue to support President Donald Trump’s deportation efforts. Although Texans are now much more divided over his immigration policies than they were earlier this year, 51% still support the policies overall. Marginal majorities also back local law enforcement assistance with immigration arrests and worksite raids targeting those without legal status.
Table: Bayliss Wagner, Hearst NewspapersSource: Migration Policy Institute
Travis County’s ‘unauthorized immigrant’ population is long-established, but has been growing
Work continues in the new Texas Football indoor practice facility on campus across from the Moody Center, near the stadium, Oct. 30, 2025. Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
In line with Texas and national trends, a majority of Travis County’s unauthorized immigrants have lived in the U.S. for long periods. Three in five have resided in the country for 10 years or more, and 37% for more than 20 years.
Still, about 24,000 residents have lived in the U.S. less than five years, meaning Travis County has a larger share of recent arrivals (28%) than either Texas (21%) or the nation (20%).
The population is almost entirely working age and participates in the labor force at high rates. An estimated 16,000 work in construction and 8,000 in accommodation and food services.
Where Travis County’s unauthorized immigrants come from
Of those living in Travis County without authorization, just over 40% are from Mexico. Immigrants from Honduras and Guatemala make up the next largest groups, at 19% and 11%, respectively.
Although smaller than Travis County’s population, Williamson’s immigrant community appears more established: Two-thirds have lived in the U.S. 10 years or longer, and 42% for more than 20 years. About 8,000 are homeowners (almost twice the rate of Travis County) and 7,000 are parents of U.S. citizen children under 18, the report found.
Although smaller than Travis County’s population, Williamson’s immigrant community appears more established: Two-thirds have lived in the U.S. 10 years or longer, and 42% for more than 20 years. About 8,000 are homeowners (almost twice the rate of Travis County) and 7,000 are parents of U.S. citizen children under 18, the report found.
Emiliano Tahui Gómez covers Latinos in Austin for the Statesman, including immigration, displacement and culture. He has written about Venezuelan softball leagues, Tejano musicians and the impact of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. He contributed to the Statesman's 2024 series on the aftermath of the Hays school bus crash that won the EWA's Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting and the SPJ's Sigma Delta Chi award, which honors the best in newspaper, digital, television and radio journalism.
