Texas Observer readers,
I was flitting about the intersection of Lamar and Rundberg in north Austin, snatching quick interviews in Spanish with the protesters who’d shut down the street. They carried Mexican and Central American flags and signs with messages like, “Stop Deportations, chinga la migra!”
It was a bold, even joyful, demonstration as fear ran through Texas’ capital city. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were in the process of arresting 132 immigrants in the area over a four-day period, including in a parking lot near that intersection, in what was likely retaliation for the local sheriff limiting cooperation with ICE. It was February of 2017, and Donald Trump had been in office less than a month.
