Protesters Take To North Austin Streets In Protest Of Bolstered Local ICE Enforcement

AUSTIN, TX — About 100 protesters took to the streets in North Austin Saturday night to decry recent bolstered enforcement of federal immigration policy this week that has resulted in more than 40 local detentions of undocumented immigrants.

The protesters were in the area of Rundberg Lane and Lamar Boulevard, not far from and HEB grocery store where immigrant advocates say a man was detained in connection to his residency status. It's the second consecutive day that protesters have gathered at the site.

In a video of the protest posted by one of the protest's organizers, protesters are heard chanting loudly — at times using expletives to describe the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents conducting the search for undocumented residents in order to launch deportation proceedings.

The ICE raids come at a time of heightened calls from Republican leaders — from the White House to the Texas Capitol — as Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott both call for ending so-called "sanctuary cities," deemed by conservatives as not aggressively enough cooperating with ICE with deportations.

Some of the protesters at Saturday's gathering waved a Mexican flag, and solicited honks from passing motorists.

Those attending the protest were posting pictures through the night on Twitter, one user saying that up to 20 police cars were at the scene with police lining up to form a perimeter. By late into the evening, police — some carrying rifles and wearing tactical gear — had formed a human wall preventing marchers from walking along Lamar Boulevard.

One tweeted photo by Doug Alles depicts the scene as police fortified their presence as the evening wore on:

Despite the cacophony, it was a peaceful protest and no arrests had been reported just past midnight on Sunday.

Immigrant advocates are angry at the sudden bolstered ICE efforts to deport undocumented immigrants living in Austin, sharing cell phone video and pictures of detentions that have been occurring throughout the city since mid-week.

One widely shared video shows a handcuffed detainee previously detained at the site in an incident that spared the ongoing protests. The Spanish-language El Mundo newspaper was among those sharing the video snippet, crediting the videographer as Mando Vega.

"The images prove irrefutably the presence of ICE in Austin," an El Mundo writer posted as a caption to the posted video.

Friday's protest is the lates in a series of spontaneous marches and vigils that have taken place in the city since Trump instituted anti-immigration measures aimed at Mexicans and Muslims. Members of the Workers Defense Project, a pro-immigrant nonprofit, staged a vigil earlier this month after Senate Bill 4 aimed at banning so-called "sanctuary cities" cleared the state Senate en route to the House for final approval.

And in late January, an overflow crowd gathered at the First English Lutheran Church as 400 gathered to decry what they view as anti-immigrant stances by the current White House administration at the direction of Trump.

>>> Photo courtesy of Workers Defense Project