Downtown Austin Vigil Staged After Undocumented Immigrants Detained For Likely Deportation [UPDATED]

AUSTIN, TX — At least three people have been detained by federal immigration officials in Austin this week, including a landscaper who was ensnared on his way to work Thursday morning confirmed his wife, who attended an evening vigil staged outside a federal building in downtown Austin.

The detentions by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agents come amid a crackdown on undocumented immigrants at both the federal and state levels. In the White House and in the Texas Capitol, Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott both have called for a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that do not aggressively enforce federal immigration enforcement policy.

On Thursday morning at around 8:30 a.m., Manuel Alvarado fell victim to this new political reality as he headed to work, his tearful wife, Reyna Alvarado, explained to a gathering outside the J.J. Pickle Federal Building at 300 E. 8th St. Staged by the immigrant advocate group ICE Out of Austin, about 35 people assembled for a hastily formed vigil outside of the federal building where Alvarado was taken in the first step toward being deported.

As the gathering grew, a security guard asked the gathering to remain on the public sidewalk rather than the steps of the federal building given a lack of a permit to assemble. Those gathered complied in what was a peaceful protest for what appears to be an immigration crackdown in Austin that has just begun, fueled locally by the political currency of the Trump administration with hich the GOP-controlled Legislature is simpatico.

“What do I do now?” Reyna Alvarado said in Spanish. "I had to go to school and tell my daughter that they’ve taken her father away,” she added, while her forlorn 12-year-old, the youngest of the Honduran couple's three children clutched her mother as she spoke. "Where am I going now? Wholl take away this pain now that they've taken my husband?"

The grief-stricken woman said she has lived in Austin for about 10 years, and the couple has three children ages 12, 23 and 20. Working at a convenience store, she said her work dealing with the public forces her to maintain a positive outlook for the sake of her customers, but she is now not only heartbroken but fearful for the family's future.

"At the gasoline station, I have to have a smile on my face like a clown," she said. "I have a great pain in my heart."

She said she and her husband fled Honduras after after the feared “Maras” gang killed some of her family members. Safely ensconced in Austin for the last 10 years or so, the peaceful existence they found here now is in question after her husband missed an immigration hearing in San Antonio, setting the stage for his likely deportation, she said.

As part of his landscaping work, Manuel Alvarado was responsible for picking up the rest of his crew as they tended to people's properties across the city, his wife said. It wasn't until about 1:45 p.m. that she was able to talk to her husband when he told her what had happened that day.

As anti-immigration sentiments grows nationwide as part of the new political climate, Austin has joined a growing list of cities that are now seeing Immigration, Customs and Enforcment agents coming directly into cities to round up people with previous deportation orders.

ICE Out of Austin official Alejandro Caceres said another worker was detained at a "taqueria" or taco stand, on Riverside Drive and another off Cameron Road, although details weren't available. Immigrant advocates also received reports of detention efforts being made off FM 969 in the Austin Colony area of East Austin.

Caceres said there are also reports of border patrol agents visiting schools to ask about parents immigration status, including McBee Elementary School, 1001 W Braker Lane, in North Austin. Another middle school near Uvalde was similarly targeted, Caceres said.

But Jacob Barrett, a spokesman for Austin ISD of which McBee Elementary is a part, said Friday he was not aware of contacts being made by immigration officials at the campus.

"We are not aware of any ICE patrols coming on any of our campuses," Barrett told Patch via email. "Could you please correct your story as we have many families calling regarding that allegation."

Still, Austin ISD officials have made available an array of resources for students and parents whose families might be visited by ICE agents, including a primer on how to respond within safeguarded legal parameters afforded to residents.

"At Austin ISD, we are committed to the emotional and physical safety and well-being of all our students, families, teachers and staff," Superintendent Paul Cruz wrote on the district's website on Friday. "We know our schools are safe, welcoming spaces and we value our diversity. Please know that every day, we strive to ensure we are creating positive learning environments for all of our students."

Other cites have seen bolstered immigration enforcement activity since Trump has called for a crackdown. Throughout Southern California, ramped-up efforts by ICE to deport the undocumented — even those without criminal records — has begun in earnest, with reports of up to 100 people rounded up Los Angeles alone. Many of those detained have been taken from their homes, according to immigration advocates.

And in Phoenix, Guadalupe García de Rayos has become the face of the new order. The mother of two who's lived in this country since 1996 was detained after making her annual required check-in with immigration officials, emerging as the first person in the nation affected by the heightened priority of mass deportations. Widely circulated on social media, a photo of the woman in the back of a police van, a vacant expression on her face, has spoken volumes for those arguing for a more humane approach to dealing with the immigration issue.

After arriving in the U.S. as a teenager, Garcia de Rayos was detained on Wednesday and deported to her native Mexico within 24 hours. Her saga has become emblematic of Trump's crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

But Margaret Halpin, a lifelong Austin resident who joined the vigil, doesn't believe any human beings should be categorized as "illegal," regardless of their documentation status.

"It's really devastating to hear of families being torn apart," she said. "I don't think it's right to call these people illegal. We have to stand up for all those in our community, regardless of where they come from."

Soon after Alvarado spoke, under the watchful eye of the federal building's security guard, those gathered started chanting slogans that, given the current political climate, have become all too familiar in Austin where a day hasn't gone by in Austin without a march or vigil taking place in some part of the city since Jan. 20 — the date of Trump's inauguration.

¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido! those gathered repeated in the now often-heard mantra chanted throughout Austin these days: The people united will never be defeated.

>>> Photos by Tony Cantú