Castro, San Antonio Delegation Urge Cities to End Their 287(g) Agreements with ICE

Castro, San Antonio Delegation Urge Cities to End Their 287(g) Agreements with ICE

"They want to wreck families. They know what they are doing."

San Antonio, TX - Today, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Congressman Greg Casar (TX-35), and Texas Reps. Trey Martinez Fischer, and Barbara Gervin-Hawkins announced they have asked six San Antonio area municipalities-Balcones Heights, China Grove, Hollywood Park, Saint Hedwig, Sandy Oaks, and Von Ormy- to withdraw from their 287(g) agreements with ICE. These agreements surged under the Trump Administration and allow local police officers to act as ICE agents and conduct immigration enforcement.

Congressman Castro led 14 of his colleagues, including state legislators and county commissioners, in a letter to the mayors of these municipalities urging them to end their harmful contracts and publicly release the details of their participation in the program.

Watch press conference here.

"Cities in Bexar County should reconsider their cooperative agreements with ICE. Parents have stopped sending their kids to school, people are afraid to show up to their places of worship, and businesses are losing their employees. U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, and folks who have work authorizations get locked up because of President Trump and Governor Abbott's mass deportation machine. They are racially profiling folks and wrecking families. Bexar County residents deserve leadership that protects them from an abusive and rogue agency," said Congressman Castro.

"These agreements take cops off of their local beat to prioritize separating immigrant families instead," said Congressman Casar. "To every Bexar County mayor: don't balance your budget through harassment, discrimination, and separating families. Read our letter, answer our questions, and end these agreements."

"Today, I stood with my Federal and State Colleagues to speak out against the injustice and inhumanity of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's 287(g) program," said Rep. Gervin-Hawkins. "The negative impacts this program will have in our communities of color are detrimental and unacceptable. Most importantly, it erodes community trust and public safety. Our communities will be afraid of first responders, unreported crimes will increase, victims of crimes will be revictimized, racial profiling will intensify, the number of unlawful and prolonged detention of individuals will rise. This is not what our forefathers envisioned for our country. I will continue to fight against injustice and stand for the humane treatment of all."

Read the letter to the mayors of Balcones Heights, China Grove, Hollywood Park, Saint Hedwig, Sandy Oaks, and Von Ormy.

The letter is co-signed by: Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Congressman Greg Casar (TX-35), Texas Senator Ronald Gutierrez, Texas Senator Jose Menendez, Texas Rep. Diego Bernal, Texas Rep. Philip Cortez, Texas Rep. Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, Texas Rep. Elizabeth Campos, Texas Rep. Josey Garcia, Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, Texas Rep. Ray Lopez, Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai.

Congressman Castro's remarks as delivered:

I'm Congressman Joaquin Castro, and very proud to represent our hometown of San Antonio in the U.S. House of Representatives. And want to say a special thank you today to the representatives who have joined me, my colleague in the U.S. House of Representatives, who also represents a big part of San Antonio, Greg Casar, also two state representatives, Trey Martinez Fisher, who represents the West and the Northwest Side, and also Representative Barbara Gervin-Hawkins, who represents big parts of the East Side and the Northeast side.

I want to say thank you to them for being here today.

Myself and 14 of my colleagues are asking that China Grove, Balcones Heights, Hollywood Park, Saint Hedwig, Von Army, and Sandy Oaks cities within Bexar County end their 287(g) agreements with ICE. For those that aren't familiar, 287(g) refers to Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a federal law that lets ICE deputize state and local police officers to carry out federal immigration enforcement. These six cities signed on to what's called a task force model, specifically the version that allows local officers to stop, question, and detain people based on nothing more than suspicion that they may be in the country illegally.

Now, this, as y'all can imagine, has led to a lot of racial profiling within Bexar County and around the country, and it effectively turns a hometown police department into an arm of federal immigration enforcement. So they're turning local law enforcement into ICE agents and receiving money to do that.

In fact, after talking to some council members and at least one of the mayors of the cities, I believe that a big part of the reason that they're doing this is they're trying to balance their budgets with this money, because they receive money for each officer that is trained to carry out this partnership with ICE. Bear in mind that ICE has become a rogue, abusive organization under Donald Trump. We've seen their brutality on their on the streets, but also ICE seen their brutality, as has Greg, behind the closed doors of places like the Dilley Trailer Prison.

We've seen this cruelty in San Antonio as well, and as I said, they're racially profiling folks. So if you are someone who has brown skin, who speaks Spanish in public, or who works a certain job or goes to a certain place, they've been staking out places like Home Depot and Lowe's and other places where hardworking men and women will go to get supplies, and bear in mind, we shouldn't forget that Greg Abbott is a full partner in Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign. The excess, the cruelty, the warrantless searches, the guns drawn, the masks-all of it-Greg Abbott is just as responsible as Donald Trump in Texas.

He's partnered with the Trump Administration and flooded our streets with ICE officers and also DPS officers who are working hand in hand with what has become a rogue, abusive agency. They're going after children, and folks who have not, who have no criminal record, and who have done nothing wrong, and that includes, as you all know, U.S. citizens who have been ensnared in this, legal permanent residents, and even folks who have permission to be in the country and work authorization. So let me be clear: these agreements should end because people like 20-year-old Herbert Ibarra Castro end up locked up.

This was a story of Herbert, who was a mariachi performer. What started out as a routine traffic stop for the San Antonio mariachi student turned into his family's worst nightmare. He was pulled over for speeding in China Grove. Minutes later, ICE showed up and took him. Herbert was married to a U.S. citizen and had just filed paperwork for his green card. Since then, Herbert's been released, but he should have never been locked up in the first place. And over a month ago, Texas DPS stopped Jesus Bracho on his way to work, he was with his nine-year-old daughter Katherine. DPS called ICE, took Jesus, and minutes later returned for Katherine so that they could take her as well. And ICE forced Jesus to lure his daughter out of his boss's house.

And I posted that video, and others have as well on social media, she was scared and didn't know where she was being taken, and they are both still sitting at the Dilley Trailer Prison. Because of these 287(g) agreements, local law enforcement officers are essentially partners in ICE's cruelty, and our community. In many places, folks are scared and terrified. Some students in San Antonio stop showing up at school. Folks are afraid to show up to their places of worship, or even go to work. Businesses have lost employees. Some businesses have told me that either they've shut down, or they're on the verge of shutting down and going broke.

And that's why we're calling on the mayors of Balcones Heights, China Grove, St. Hedwig, Von Army, Sandy Oaks, and Hollywood Park to reconsider and to withdraw these contracts. Our communities deserve police who protect them, not law enforcement that troll that fuels Donald Trump and Greg Abbott's mass deportation machine.

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