Mother of 3 Detained in Hays County ICE Raid Say Siblings Have No Gang Ties

By Meredith McKelvey

Reporting Texas

On Tuesday, protesters gathered in front of two unmarked vans departing an ICE detention facility at the J.J. Pickle Federal Building in downtown Austin. Linking their arms together, they attempted to prevent the vans from leaving. 

A 16-year-old boy was inside one of the vans. Eventually, the line of protesters broke and the vans swerved onto the road, headlights reflecting on the pavement as they drove away with the boy. Protesters screamed after them, their voices hoarse with desperation. 

For several days after the protest, the child’s mother, a legal immigrant with Temporary Protected Status, did not know where law enforcement officers had taken her teenage son.

“I want the public to know that my children are not linked to any gang, as the government is saying,” the mother said. Due to fears for her safety and that of her children, she declined to be identified for this story. 

The boy and his older siblings, both in their early 20s, were detained with more than 40 others during a law enforcement raid at a party in Hays County early Tuesday. According to a press statement, the raid was the result of a joint investigation by the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Texas Department of Public safety and “several other federal, state and local partners.” 

Without providing evidence or details, the law enforcement statement accused the detained individuals of being members or affiliates of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been targeted by the new Trump administration. But their mother says her children were invited to the party simply because her daughter’s boyfriend, a DJ, was hired to play a set. 

“The child had no idea who was at the party,” said Naiara Leite da Silva, a lawyer representing the boy’s mother. “He has no tattoos, no gang affiliations.” 

After the three siblings were detained, law enforcement officials took them to separate detention facilities, the mother and lawyer said.

When her children did not return home overnight, their mother, confused and distraught by their disappearance, contacted da Silva for assistance. Concerned that the siblings had been abducted or subject to a violent crime, da Silva called several law enforcement offices, including the FBI, in an attempt to locate them. 

“We had called the Austin Police Department and Hays County sheriff’s office. Both of them denied taking part in an operation in that location around those hours,” da Silva said. 

Later, ICE called the  mother to tell her that her children had been taken into custody. Law enforcement officials told the mother that the 16-year-old, who had a pending application for asylum, was at the detention facility in downtown Austin. 

Da Silva offered to collect the child on the mother’s behalf, fearing that ICE might attempt to detain the woman.  With her legal assistant, da Silva arrived outside the federal building, where the group of protesters had gathered to block the vans. 

“When I was negotiating the release of the child, I had documentation showing the child had legal rights to be in the United States,” da Silva said. “I asked them if they had any evidence that could corroborate their allegations, and they showed me none.” 

ICE officials rejected da Silva’s attempts to collect the teenage boy. He is being held at an undisclosed location, and it is unclear if he will be deported. 

The Texas Department of Public Safety could not be reached for comment. The FBI directed Reporting Texas to the  online press statement that said  law enforcement officials had “established sufficient cause to obtain a search warrant” for the residence where the party occurred. Officials have not made the search warrant public.

The ICE raid occurred just hours after a district judge in California blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to revoke the Temporary Protected Status for nearly 600,000 Venezuelans living in the United States. Since Trump took office in January, ICE has deported over 200 Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador without due process. Many of them have pending asylum cases. 

“They are hard working kids. My daughter has a son who’s five. My son has a baby who’s two years old,” the mother said. “They don’t get into any trouble.” “I’m scared that if I say anything, if I do anything here, they will deport my children.”

Shunya Carroll and Alex Lamb of Reporting Texas contributed to this report.