Travis County Commissioners Court
February 5, 2008
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is first. And this item gives resident an opportunity to address the Commissioners court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes. Any matter on the agenda for up to three minutes. And number one is nicole true. She's first. Followed by tomas esparza. Ma'am, if you would have a seat there and get real comfortable, we'll get you company of at least two. If I got close, please come forward. Ms. True? If you would give us your full name we would be happy to get your comments.
>> my name is nicole lynn true and I’m here as a concerned citizen and voter of Travis County regarding the sheriff's policy of opening the Travis County jail to immigration, customs enforcement ice official 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The plan is to put an office in the jail. I see the sheriff has some spokes people here. I’m not sure if they're going to talk, but I want to spend my time telling you what we have seen on the ground, whereas immigration officials claim they do not put detainers on anyone booked into the jail until they have verified that they are in fact here illegally, what we are seeing is many people who are legal permanent residents who have temporary protected status or other legal status here that, they are being detained. And is up to that person and -- to communicate with their families from the jail to bring their paperwork forward and communicate with the ice officials so that ice can list that detainer. And it's been difficult for many people to find the right person in ice to lift that detainer. So by allowing ice inside the jail we're allowing people who are legally here to be detained, despite what ice may say publicly. I see that happening. I work as a criminal defense attorney and I have seen those cases. In addition, the sheriff claims that this is not a new policy, but having an office -- allowing ice to have an office inside the jail is new. Before they would come periodically to review lists. I work primarily with the immigrant population. I rarely saw detainers on my clients. Now I’m seeing it on almost every one. So people are getting stuck inside the jail that would otherwise be eligible for release on personal bonds. What we're going to see is a jail overcrowding situation or problem and that will cause the county to pay more money, stlel to pay more money for court appointed attorney to represent them. These people while they're in jail, since they will reb solving their criminal cases in jail, there will not be payment of court costs, crimes, restitution of crime victims. People won't be able to do probation. The point is it's this policy of -- this cooperation between the sheriff and ice is causing people to be illegally detained and pushing the immigrant population much further underground. When they see their loved ones being taken away by a.p.d. On minor traffic vietions like speeding or running a red light and never come home, they won't want to call the police when they become victims of crimes and that's what's happening. And I ask that the Commissioners court look at this. We have a lot of speakers here today -- thank you.
>> thank you. Mr. Esparza is next and miss disis (indiscernible), if you would have a seat there. And if we could get gus pen to move forward, hel be after the two. Tomas esparza and I come with great concern about the sheriff's policy to allow the immigrations and customs enforcement, ice, to mutt an officer in -- to put an officer in jail 24/7. An immigration hold is the equivalent of shoot first and ask questions later. I will point out that in our own Travis County immigrant assess oment page 6, the county found 148,000 foreign born residents living in Travis County. That's legal, that's illegal, that's authorized to be here, that's unauthorized to be here. An immigration hold applies to everyone. It applies to maidz, painters, plumbers, high-tech woarkz, guard 10ers, nurses working at the hospital, teachers working at aisd. People who have been patiently waiting in line for five to 10 to 15 years to become permanent residents. Closetory home, it would apply to my mother-in-law who speaks marginal english and who has lived here for 10 years. If she were detained and couldn't convince -- couldn't convince an immigration officer that she was a permanent resident, she would be subject to that -- she would be subject to the hold and actually, she would be held until she had been screened and printed. The criminal justice system has been slow. It is my job to document the criminal history of my clients. What I see on the d.p.s. Computer does not match what I get from d.p.s. When I send clients to get fingerprints and often that does not match the f.b.i. When I get an f.b.i. Record. Often the only true way to tell what happened in a case is to actually get the record from the county to mpndintheroblemhan't come u the scrutiny. They don't realize that there's a waiver available for them. They don't realize that is a problem. So I know I’ tothex eightm articles around the country, ar dai a 6 of e peopl detained flarsthe gornment is ow bursfor held on immigration holds.
>> how are they detain odd a class c and not
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> ma'am, it's common knowledge that on a class c, if an individual does not pass what lawyers call the attitude test --
>> they get pulled in on failing to obey the order of a police officer, which is a class c.
>> that's correct.
>> so most are detained on class c.
>> I would like to say contrary to what the "austin american-statesman" had to say, our streets will not be safer without gardeners and maids and teachers and high-tech workers and students. Thank you very much.
>> by the way, this item will be on the agenda next week, I understand. There's been an item submitted. During citizens information we can receive information. We will be able to deliberate next week. So there will be give and take back and forth legally next week. Today we're authorized to receive information from you which we'll gladly do. Ma'am, I know I’ve mispronounced your name at least twice already and ms. Dick if we could get to you move forward.
>> my name is (indiscernible). You didn't do such a bad job. I’ve heard worse.
>> I’ll do it a lot faster last time.
>> I’m a board member of poder and I work with grassroots leadership, a nonprofit organization that attempts to try to stop the increase of private prisons.
>> could you speak up a little bit into the mic? You're hard to understand. Thank you.
>> I came here this morning because I made a promise to my immediate family and my local community that I would give voice to their concerns and oppose the recently enforced policy of giving federal immigration authorities complete and unrestricted access into our local county jails. This policy is already spreading a wave of panic and fear in our community, and our families are literally driving and walking through our city streets watching their backs for the fear of being persecuted and harassed because they are untrust thafl the local law enforcement is not intending to change the policing efforts. A lot of the rhetoric that has been spread in the media that has allowed this action to be justified is focused around the argument that those being detained are criminal aliens and that the county is only seeking to protect public safety. We call it the myth of immigrant (indiscernible). And it is a myth because research those shoaz that immigrants have lower incarceration rates. And the data proves that more immigrants are being detained at unprecedented levels, not just they're committing violent crimes, but because the policy keeps expanding the definition of what it considers to be criminal. An operation streamline and I think it's a program that started in irving, Texas in 2006 is an example of that. Things that were once considered to be civil violations are now being criminally prosecuted. And as a result, our prisons have become overcrowded. Taxpayers are being burdened in sustaining and creating -- sustaining the expansion of the prison beds. And we are forcing an environment that is creating the need for the expansion of more prisons. The creation of more prisons and the expansion of existing ones. But aside from the economic strain that this county is going to be faced with, there's a moral and human rights argument that needs to be made. As the daughter of someone who was deported not more than a couple of months ago, I want to speak to the pain, the terror and the emotional violence that a family has to live through when one's loved one is detained for an indernl nate amount of time because sometimes when --
>> [ buzzer sounds ] thank you. I guess the only thing that I want to say is that poder podr believes the community wasn't part of this decision, and we have organized along with other community advocates a community meeting where all of you are invited to attend. It going to be this Tuesday, February the 12th at 6:00 p.m. At the connally guerrero senior activity center. We hope that you can make it out there to listen to what our community has to say about this. Thank you.
>> thank you. Mr. Pena is next, followed by ms. Dick. Fanned we could get martha to come forward. Mr. Pena?
>> judge, good morning. Gus pena, native east Austinite. I’m here on another issue, voting. Vote because Texas will have a say on who will be your next president, unlike prior election years. We also urge the youth, 18 and over to vote. We had many voter registration drives so many youth are registered to vote. Get up there and vote. Your vote can make a big difference. Let's carry it for our proud united states of america. Get educated on the issues, the platform and their background. That's very important. Go on the website, read everything you can on them because sometimes they won't tell you the truett of what you want to hear. Yes. The next president will have a big job to steer our country back to prosperity and safety. We also are educating our voters on upcoming city council elections. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll say it for the record, I ran for city council in 1996 and 1997 on a poor man's campaign. The people have been exclude odd many issues at the city council. I’m proud of y'all. At least have you an inclusionary process here. I’ve said before, we need to have the voters included in all processes competent maybe executive session. I understand the issue there. I’m a former i.r.s. Investigator. I also want our federal troops and our federal agents to realize that they have a right to vote. Please vote out there. We want you young people to be a strong catalyst to elect good leaders and will be in it for the best interests of all people, not just some. I challenge all military veterans to get out and vote. We current sli a big group of veterans that are a good voting block. Traditionally veterans won't block. Now they will because of what, we have a new secretary of veterans affairs. We are lacking good health care, jobs. We're lacking mental health treatment for our veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan. That's not acceptable. We put our lives on the line. We seived for our country's freedom, safety and democracy swgd other country's freedom, safety and democracy. We don't want a handout, we want a hand up. A lot mif fellow veterans are homeless. You need to get them off the street, get them mental health treatment and substance abuse treatment. I had to call in the f.b.i., atf and the united states attorney's office to combat gang violence in Austin. It's coming back up. We have a lot more gang members coming in from other countries. We need their help again. I have been in contact with all federal agencies. They're going to have another meeting. I told you about this last year we had meetings with thevment and also I do commend a.p.d. And the sheriff's department in their efforts to cut crime in our sector, our precinct, henry sector, riverside drive, oltorf and parker.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] I’ll wrap up quickly. I think it's incumbent upon the people to support our officers out there. I’ll support any police officer that's out there to do the best interest of the citizens and keep safety paramount. Thank you very much.
>> thank you. Ms. Dick?
>> good morning. Happy belated new year's to everyone. As you know, I am the president of parents of concerned inmates being abuse understand Texas prisons, jails and youth facilities. We had a group meeting January the 24th, 2008 at the lion's elderly club -- senior citizens center down on lions road, 2720 lions road is located in front of the roads center. At this meeting I invited mr. David koresh of the barack obama campaign. He is the manager for the democratic party, mr. Barack obama. I had the organization leader, mr. Clint smith of the gray panthers of Austin and I had mr. Bryan thompson, the attorney that's run fog district 46. They were there taking the interest in the part of owsh our group members about their inmate loved once being abuse understand Texas prisons. They're not only being killed in these Texas prisons, they are being harassed, they are being death threats, like my son is going through right now. We have innocent people. Some may not be innocent, but we have people in these state prisons who's going through abuse. And this is what we're trying to prevent. I was at the hearing of senator john whitmire, and' r. On that he was saying that he doesn't want any more abuse or killings or deaths coming up on his watch. I would like to see if I could set an appointment with mr. Whitmire because I have been running to the office and talking with mr. Lawrence coleman and his tammy james about my son's case and I’d like to present my group's case and everything. We'd like to come in as a group and talk with mr. Whitmire if we could about the abuse that our inmates are going through. I would like to invite the public to our very next meeting which will be this month. I’ll have fliers as to why the date and time. But it will be still at the lion's road at the senior citizens elderly, you know, center there on rosewood and pleasant valley. , no that's webberville and pleasant valley.
>> [ buzzer sounds ] we're looking for the public to come out and support us. All come out and listen to what we have to say about my group's people who have experienced death in their family from being incarcerated in state prison. Listen to the abuse that these people are going through, our inmate loved ones. Thank you.
>> thank you. Virginia raymond will be after mr. Greenstein.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners. I’m not representing anybody today because there were like 70 organizations at a meeting last week and I rounded up my troops to see who wants me to represent them, but I am representing myself, my concern. I have made this presentation on the -- on what is happening with the county at different groups and yesterday at the women of good government meeting, a sass is a volunteer reported that she is just appalled that the immigrants are there, again picked up on dismiss demeanors that formally you and I would get a ticket for, nand some cases they are being told by attorneys that are not spanish speaking, that are just hanging around at the jail house that if they plead to a more serious charge like wife abuse, domestic violence that they can get out quicker. And within 12 hours or so they're deported. It's just amazing the amount of concern, of fear and disgust that is throughout in the community. And these are all ladies from west Austin, by the way. It wasn't a radical concern. So I’ve done my research. I’m leaving two reports here for you, judge, to share with the court. One of them the report from the major city chiefs is wonderful. They really lay it out there as their opposition on being called upon to do what our sheriff is doing right now. They talk about that when the local police take on federal enforcement duties, you will be asked to do it more and more often and spend more and more money. Also with law enforcement they have to balance their decision to enforce federal immigration laws with a daily mission that is theirs, which is to protect and serve a diverse community, all with limited resources. We're probably calling to get rid of this sheriff and he just signed up to run again. They undermine community policing that we have worked so hard to entrust. Plus there's not the resources. The police chief's association was also concerned that the complexity of federal laws and the inexperience of local law enforcement puts the you -- puts them at liability. There are a lot of issues. There's an increase in hate crimes against latinos already. Above all the institution says no -- the constitution says no person may be deprived of due process of law and the supreme court has issued protection for people whether they're immigrant or otherwise. Thank you very much.
>> thank you. Mrs. Be.
>> I want to quote from one of my favorite magazines, police chief magazine. This is a January 2008 article, reprinting a 2004 article. And they quote, should local police begin enforcing immigration laws, more women and children struggling with domestic violence will avoid police intervention and help. It's a real concern in the minority community what do you do now if you have a crime that you see or you are the victim of a crime and you are undocumented. As dallas becomes more liberal, we are becoming less so. It is not the Austin that we've come to love, it's not the Austin that we trief about people and -- that we rave to to people, and is a sad thing.
>> judge Biscoe and Commissioners, good morning and thanks for letting us be here. I want to urge you -- I do want you to urge you to tell the sheriff what to do as our employee. As the citizens of Travis County, he is our employee and we do want you to give him some direction in this matter and ask him to keep ice out of the Travis County jail. I want to urge you that for both practical reasons as well as for moral reasons, reasons that involve moral reasons. Jail officials are not trained to do that. They are trained to look for specific things and find out the identity of people, but not as to junk their overall immigration status. Judge their overall immigration status. It's a lot to untangle. There are mistakes possible at every stage. First of all, people often have the wrong name -- the names are often confused, especially with the spanish custom of reversing the maternal last name and the paternal last name. It's rife about confusions about who is who. Second of all, the criminal records are often incorrect. And third of all the immigration errors are often incorrect. So you have all of these grounds for mistakes. It's very, very frequent for the wrong people to be arrested or even deported. Do you want to be seat sitting here allocating budget items for reimbursing all of the immigrants or some non-immigrants that are picked up by mistake for wrongful detention in the Travis County jail. Sheriff hamilton was quote understand the statesman and I don't know how accurate this is, but saying if people want to stay out of jail, they should avoid doing illegal activity. I want to remind you that it makes a point that the people who are sitting in jail are often have not been found guilty of anything. They are awaiting trial. And these people who are -- some of these people who are going to be sitting in jail on immigration holds have not been found guilty of an immigration violence and have not been found guilty of any criminal law. They're simply waiting to be judged. That's not the right place to keep them in the Travis County jail, absent grave danger which most of these people -- there's actually no question about that. I have not practiced immigration law in some time, but when I did I attended a number of meetings with the police department and community leaders out of which came the very wise policy to let the immigration officials, the federal government do its job and for a number of reasons, including community trust in local enforcement to let all local enforcement there to do their job enforcing local and statews.ce his regards and I wanted to give you an update on the status of Travis County's academy for our class. We're in week 16, we still have 21 cadets. They'll be in fire training for another two weeks and then they move to emt training. I brought them so that you could see howthey thoingtotaly'vgoa tt b beinil e ea e lis weo dressne co k have t names, judge Biscoe. Es sir.they sign citizencommun
>> we did get new citizen communications forms if you could complete them afterwards.
>> good morning. On behalf of tcsd we would like to thank you for basically allowing the funding that y'all have filtered into the academy. Without that funding most of the extensive training that we've got, most of the academies we do not get would not be possible. This also provides a little bit of extra shep as far as an extra stipend that is usually granted to us biweekly and that also helps with gas and things of that nature. But a majority of the funding goes to the education which we are receiving. And extensive training. The training dhas class most other academies cannot afford to cover or would not take the opportunity has granted us an extra leg newspaper the community as well as ranking in the fire community. And the extensive backgrounds in which we get. For that we thank you. It has changed a few of our lives. Without this academy this would not be possible. Thank you.
>> I want to say thank you for the funding you've given us. Without this funding we wouldn't be able to go here and put gas in our car and be on financial aid and community college. So thank you.
>> is this the whole group
>> [inaudible - no mic]? The entire group? That was quite an event. That was the first one I attended. I would like to say that it is about changing lives an it is about doing some things career pathwise. I’m glad we're a part of that difference and that we're making in your life?
>> four more speakers. 'It's coming up at the expo center.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic].
>> are we invite snd.
>> yes, sir. All of you.
>> thank you.
>> ms.cavasas?
>> good morning. I don't believe -- I’ve never come before y'all, but this issue caught my attention and I’m here as a public citizen. I don't have prepared remarks, but I just wanted to add my two cents that I’m really concerned about this policy, this decision that the sheriff has made. I heard about it, I read about it, and frankly the first thing that came to mind was, wow, I thought I lived in the most open minded, progressive community in Texas. And I was really shocked to hear that our sheriff was in my opinion buying into this anti-immigrant, you know, national send. That's going -- nationalsentiment that's gon right now. I thought we were a community that valued the benefit that everyone provides, whether you're rich or poor or black, brown or white or immigrant or citizen. So yes, it's very disheartening. And I’m -- frankly what I understand is that local officials do have discretion over how much access they give immigration officials. Federal law does not require them to allow ice to be in the jails and I’m concerned about public safety. He was quoted in the paper as saying this will improve public safety, but I do believe that it will have the reverse effect that victims, witnesses and even those who have committed even minor offenses who are immigrants will not cooperate with law enforcement. And frankly that's bad for law enforcement. I really feel that a.p.d. And our local law enforcement has worked hard to build trust in this community with immigrants. We are a sanctuary city and even just trust with the minority community. I think this is really -- this action is going to have reverberating waves throughout this community. Even me as an hispanic in this community, I feel that -- I do feel that this could even have a repercussion in the hispanic community, racial profiling. I know he has promised that that wouldn't happen, but it could. And I just also want to reiterate that also in the newspaper in the article that I read, he said that if immigrants will not be scrutinized if they don't participate in criminal activity and I don't think that's a fair statement because a lot of these people are not criminals in the sense of what we perceive as a criminal. They're people who may be picked up for just minor offenses and in this country you are innocent until proven guilty and I just feel like that's going against this decision that the sheriff has made. Thank you.
>> thank you. Mr. Spicer?
>> I’m brett spicer. We too are -- we want the community to know that we are very concerned about your feelings and your issues relative to our sheriff's decision. But we also would like to you know that we support our sheriff's decision because we feel he's making a sound and just policy decision for everyone's protection. And this is something that's been going on since 1997. Our sheriff's margot frasier opened the sheriff's doors to ice. The only thing that's different than what our sheriff is doing now is that ice now has the staffing to actually have a person in the jail 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So he's making -- I think it's also important that the community knows that the sheriff's office is not out enforcing immigration policy. We are merely providing a desk for ice to use to conduct their inquiries just as they're doing across our nation. We're not out arresting people for class c misdemeanor violations and seek to go have people deported or anything like that. It's not like our other issues or other jurisdictions across our country. It is important to remind the public that it is necessary to enforce class c misdemeanor arrests as a minor traffic violation is what allowed a state trooper to arrest timothy mcveigh for after the oklahoma bombing in 1995. He was arrested for not having a front license plate and allowed this trooper in his diligent work to apprehend one of our country's most violent criminals. So I would ask that if there are any community groups that would like to meet with the sheriff's law enforcement association so that we can educate you on our policies and practices and help put some of your fears to rest, we would be more than happy to do that. You can go to tclsa.org. We're more than happy to meet with you at any time and we value the district's support that they've always shown us, and I would ask that we continue to work together and for the common goal of protecting our community.
>> thank you. I’ve been asked to announce that it is now one minute until 10:00 a.m. If you are here to submit a bid under items 32, 33 or 34, you have half a minute to go into the executive session conference room across the hallway there and submit your bid, otherwise it closes in just a moment. Anybody else for citizens communication that has not spoken today? That's to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. This item -- yes, sir?
>> judge, Commissioners, I apologize. I didn't sign up to speak, but I am here on behalf of the Travis County sheriff's office association. My name is alex leo. I’m the president. And my comments will be brief. I would also like to assure members of the hispanic community and other groups in the community that the decision by our sheriff to allow ice to have an office space in our jail is just that. I’ve been a book -- central booking sergeant for many years in the past and have been there when members of the ice agency have been doing their jobs throughout the years. Nothing's changed. The only thing that's changed is that they now have the resources to allow someone to be there 24/7. That's the only change. So basically that's all I’m here to say is that as a sergeant in the sheriff's department, in the past there's always been a presence there, always. It's nothing new. And we always take care of everyone's rights when they're arrested. We make that our priority. And we certainly don't advocate for any type of abuse by anyone to anyone who is under arrest, whether they be from mexico or guatemala or new england. It doesn't matter. We're just here in support of our sheriff. Thank you.
>> now, we will post this item next week as requested. We will note on the agenda a time certain so we'll hopefully reduce the amount of time that have you to wait in court for the item to come up. Is there preference for the item to come up earlier or snafn.
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> afternoon means about 1:45. That's better than 10?
>>
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> there are a lot of specific issues, and it seems to me that the most impact would be had by having those issues delivered to the court in advance. We have what you said today. And maybe three, four or five representatives to speak. We heard citizens communication last week and citizens communication today. Next week I think our time would be most productive if we can listen with an aim toward taking action. Of course, as citizens you have a right to come and do what you wish, but in my view what I just outlined has been most impactful historically. Thanks for coming down. We look forward to seeing you next week at 1:45.
>> now, we have received a note -- citizens communication?
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 8:09 PM