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A father is choosing to self-deport to Mexico with his 5-year-old son after the pair was detained by ICE agents this month in North Austin. He’s making the decision to leave with his son, rather than risk losing custody of him.
The Austin City Council changed the way lobbying activities are reported this year, relying on self-reporting from lobbyists instead of city staff themselves. We’ll share some data on the interactions from the first quarter of the year.
The Tacos of Texas podcast is back with another season diving into the beloved food and the people who make them. We’ll go into the kitchen of an immigrant mother who shares the story of her detention by ICE agents.
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The full transcript of this episode of Austin Signal is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
Jerry Quijano A father is choosing to self-deport to Mexico with his five-year-old son after the pair was detained by ICE agents this month in North Austin. He’s making the decision to leave with his child rather than risk losing custody of him. We’re going to have the latest on their situation. The Austin City Council changed this year the way lobbying activities are reported, relying now on self-documentation from lobbyists instead of city staff themselves. We’ve got some data on the interactions from the first quarter of the year. That’s coming up on today’s show.
Laurie Gallardo The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano And the Tacos of Texas podcast is back with another season diving into the beloved food and the humans who make them. Today, we’re going to go into the kitchen of an immigrant mother to hear the story of her detention by ICE agents. We’ve got that and much more coming up next right here on Austin Signal. Howdy out there. This is Austin Signal. I’m your host, Jerry Kikono. It is the last Tuesday of August the 25th. We’re glad to be made part of your day here in the Austin area. We are still under a heat advisory that is expected to last until tomorrow night at seven o’clock. Forecasted high today, 104 tomorrow, 105. Still a very dangerous situation out there, so please stay safe and keep an eye on your community and keep it tuned in right here to KUT for the latest. A five-year-old boy and his father will be deported after being detained by immigration officials in North Austin earlier this month. The pair’s detention sparked outcry from Democratic Congressman Greg Casar, who called for the closure of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. That’s where the boy and father were held. QUT’s Mose Buchele has been following this story and he is joining us now with the latest. Mose, welcome. Thanks, Jerry. So can you give us a little bit of backstory here? What do we know so far about the father, Victor Martinez Nieto, and his son, Liam Tadeo?
Mose Buchele So Victor and Liam were on their way to a soccer game. According to their lawyer, Victor, who was a construction worker here in Austin, was kind of feeling a little tired Sunday morning, August 16th, but his son wanted to go play soccer. And they drove out to this game. They were pulled over by ICE agents. Apparently, you know, sometimes these types of arrests involve a traffic stop for another reason. But in this case, it sounds as though there was just a kind of ice. Sweep going on. They’re pulled over by immigration agents, and they were taken into custody. This was filmed by cell phone footage and shared online. It sparked a lot of outcry, these images, these videos of this father and son being led away, being arrested. And as you mentioned, in the days that followed, there were calls for their release, calls especially for five-year-old Liam’s release. And uh… That turns out it’s it appears now according to their lawyer that and uh… And according to immigration officials uh… They’ve uh… The father’s chosen to voluntarily uh… Uh… Return to mexico this country of origin with uh… His son
Jerry Quijano And you spoke to their lawyer. That’s Kate Lincoln Goldfinch. What did she tell you was the reason behind the decision?
Mose Buchele The concern here on the part of the family is that Liam may end up separated from his parents. So both Liam and his father were in the country without documentation. The way this works is that minors who are in the county in an unauthorized fashion can end up in the custody of the Office of Refugee settlement, right? And adults may face a kind of faster track towards deportation. The family and their lawyer, Kate Lincoln Goldfinch, say that they would have preferred Liam stay here in Austin with his mother and with family, but that they were not afforded that opportunity. Here’s what she said.
Kate Lincoln Goldfinch Victor has been begging since the first detention to have his son Liam released to Liam’s mother, who is here in Austin, and DHS has refused. And DHS will also have us believe that someone can just go pick up a child at Dilley. That option is also not being made available to this family or any other family that is detained in Dillye. And so Victor, facing the possibility that he would be separated from Liam because of the way that ICE conducts these deportations is deciding to depart voluntarily with his son because the alternative is that Liam could be placed into ORR custody as an unaccompanied child and children can be held in this system for months or even years at a time.
Jerry Quijano So Moe’s, in your reporting, you also note that ICE says their policy is to allow the parents to place the child with a designated person, so it sounds like there’s some conflicting information here.
Mose Buchele Yeah, yeah, definitely some kind of conflicting accounts. ICE, you know, sent me a statement saying that they do try to place children in their custody with guardians that the parents choose, that they have a policy for this. But they did not, when I asked them specific questions as to Lincoln Goldfinch’s assertions here, I asked, I said, this is how she’s characterizing this. What do you say to that? They did not directly respond to those comments. And of course… Her, what she’s saying is that there is a chance and a great concern in the part of these parents that he could end up in either alone in children’s detention facilities, which do exist all over the place, including in Texas, or could end in a kind of foster program away from his parents. And so rather than run that risk, the father’s decision was to voluntarily Deport, voluntarily go to Mexico with his son where at least they know they can be together.
Jerry Quijano Okay, Liam’s mother lives here in Austin. What is she trying to do right now?
Mose Buchele Again, according to their lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfin, she is trying to figure out how to essentially reunite now with her husband and her son. Here’s another quote from the lawyer.
Kate Lincoln Goldfinch And the person of course most suffering other than themselves is Maria, Liam’s mother. Liam is her only child and so in a heartbeat she lost both her husband and her child and she is really struggling. It’s very very awful for her and her number one main priority is her son and his well being and she would like to be reunited with him as quickly as possible.
Jerry Quijano Okay, we’re gonna have more about this story in today’s podcast, Show Notes, and something that we will continue to follow. That is Mo’s Bouchelle. Mo’s, thank you for your reporting. Thank you, Jerry. OK, lobbying is an inevitable part of how the government works. But if you ever wondered who is lobbying city council the most and who is being lobbied the most, the Austin American statesman recently looked into the data and got some answers. Michael Zang and Chaya Tong are data reporter and city hall reporter, respectively, for the Austin American statesmen. They crunched the numbers, and they are joining us now. Michael, Chaya, welcome to the show. Thanks for having us. So before we get into the numbers, I wanted to ask y’all about how you obtained this data. This is from new disclosure rules the city approved in March. Can you talk about what changed first and foremost?
Michael Zang Sure, so in March, Austin City Council voted to change the way it calculated its lobbying, and it was a pretty controversial vote, which is what first caught our eye. The council expanded the types of lobbying contracts that have to be disclosed. So instead of just meetings, lobbyists now have to disclose things like texts or emails, any kind of communication, but the new rules also put the responsibility for that closure on the lobbyists themselves. Shifting it away from the city employees who used to be responsible for tracking lobbying at the city. And the changes were pretty controversial. Two council members who were pretty prominent, Ryan Alter and Vanessa Fuentes, both said that the changes would make lobbying in Austin less transparent and voted against it on the dais. So that was sort of our starting point for this story.
Jerry Quijano Okay, so once that change happened, was this data readily available or did you have to go through some steps to request it and go through it?
Chaya Tong We did have to go through some steps. These reports are filed to the Citi website quarterly, but they come in PDF form. So we actually have to scrape them out and then make it into a spreadsheet from there to analyze. But yeah.
Jerry Quijano Okay, so let’s talk a little bit about what you found in that data. Who and what industries were doing the most lobbying at City Hall, and who were they often targeting?
Michael Zang Well, our top line finding was that most lobbyists are representing real estate and development. It kind of stood out to us. It wasn’t quite what we had expected, especially given that a lot of the top line items that you see at City Hall are often not necessarily development at every single meeting. But the expert that we talked to told us that it’s actually not a surprising finding at all. It’s pretty normal for most local governments to have a lot real estate in development interests. A big part of what local government does. And so, hand in hand with that, the people that got lobbied the most were actually staff in development policy or in real estate policy, instead of elected officials. Again, pretty surprising to us. I think one of the numbers that we found was that the mayors, like staffers, get lobbied so much more than like the mayor or even any of the council members, all of our top people that we identified who. Were getting contacted by lobbyists, almost none of them were actual elected officials themselves.
Jerry Quijano And from the experts that you spoke with, what is the benefit of reaching out to those staff members versus the mayor or the council member themselves?
Michael Zang Yeah I mean a lot of the staff members will be kind of the first point of contact for running any kind of zoning change or real estate change. So a lot of these lobbyists are getting kind of like a check on their policy. Is this something that would comply with city code? Is this something that would be acceptable in Austin? And so that is a lot of what our experts were saying these lobbyist were going to specific staff members for.
Jerry Quijano Where were some of the other big takeaways that you found from the data?
Chaya Tong Yeah, we also saw that some of the outliers who weren’t in development worked in areas like higher education, UT Austin lobbied the city a lot. We also saw Austin ISD lobbying the city. Waymo was one of them, one of the companies on there. And one outlier we saw was this venture capitalist called Evan Baer. He’s been covered by Texas Monthly as trying to move Austin to the right, trying to get city officials who are more right leaning into office. And he was also one of outliers on the list.
Jerry Quijano You mentioned the controversy when the decision was first made back in March. Since the system now relies on reporting from lobbyists, do we have any idea how much data might be missing from these quarter one reports since it relies so much on self-reporting?
Michael Zang So this was kind of unclear, honestly, from the data. For one thing, the rules took effect March 23rd. And so it’s a little unclear of like, if only that last week is under the new system. Yeah, from March 23 to the end of March. Yeah, or if it was the whole thing. But several of our lobbyist sources told us that they were asked to report the entire period as if they were under the news system. So they were effectively backdating those communications that they within reporting. But in terms of what else could be missing, some of the other Things that could be out there is whether the lobbyists are reporting every single contact and it’s unclear if the city checks behind them to verify on the city’s end. Yes, this contact was made or if there’s any kind of audit process. Some of that is still unclear as the system starts up.
Jerry Quijano Can you just be a little bit more, can you give us a bit of a definition of what contact means in this situation, because that range is, it’s a pretty big range, correct?
Michael Zang Yeah, it spans all kinds of things. We’re talking emails, texts, meetings. I mean, technically the definition that they put forward makes it sound like it could be any and all kinds of contact, any kind of contact. Whether that’s formal, informal, anything that it has to do with lobbying.
Chaya Tong Yeah as long as a text is sent, an email, a phone call, each one is counted as one tick essentially and then put in the data and all that even a written letter that’s all recorded in there.
Jerry Quijano Okay, this data was from quarter one reports. Do you anticipate when quarter two reports might be available? Is that something you’re already working on?
Chaya Tong Quarter two reports are actually been submitted. We’ve been taking a look at that. We’ll see what we can pull from that. But yeah, this is something that’s, the data is gonna keep coming through. They’re gonna keep getting reported and we’ll see comes out of it.
Jerry Quijano Okay, we look forward to hearing more about that reporting that you are doing. We have been speaking with Austin American Statesman reporters Chaya Tong and Michael Zhang. Thank you for your time.
Michael Zang Thank you.
Jerry Quijano Okay, we got a few headlines for you today. Some sad news just into newsrooms all around the world. Country music legend Dolly Parton passed away today at the age of 80. This news just came in a few minutes ago, but we will have plenty more coverage for you today here on KUT News, and undoubtedly all of the programs here on NPR as well. Locally, Austin City Council member Page Ellis will not seek another term in office. Ellis had filed a petition to run for a third term, but it was rejected by the city clerk for not having enough signatures. Austin City Charter restricts council members to just two terms in office. To seek an additional term, they need to get signatures from 5% of qualified voters in their district. Ellis was just about 60 signatures shy of meeting that requirement. Enrollment at Austin Community College continues to rise. College officials say they are welcoming more than 44,000 students for the fall semester, a 17% increase over the last couple years. The college’s free tuition pilot program is also up 40% from last year. And the Austin Animal Center lost air conditioning earlier this month in two buildings. The shelter is also over capacity, housing about 80 dogs. They have been operating using portable AC and some box fans, but the temporary fix can’t keep the buildings any cooler than about the low 90s. We have more at kut.org and more after this break. Howdy, podcast listeners. We can’t include our segment this week in Texas Music History in this podcast because of music streaming rights, but If you want to keep up with Texas music history, and we know you do not to worry, just head on over to KUTX.org. The newest season of the Tacos of Texas podcast is out, and I’ve got a little preview of the debut episode for you today. There is plenty of talk about tacos and tortillas, and it also features a story of an immigrant mother who asked not to be named, detailing her accounts of being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There is a bit of Spanish, English, and Spanglish in this interview. Let’s join her and the show’s host, the show host, Mando Rayo, as they prepare a dish.
Mando Rayo Gracias por… Aquí estamos en su casa, vamos a… ¿Qué vamos a comer?
Speaker 8 Gracias por venir. Vamos a comer un chile a la mexicana. Un huevo a la Mexicana.
Mando Rayo Huevola Mexicana, andele.
Speaker 8 There are some tortillas that I’m going to make for you.
Mando Rayo A ver, pues a ver, enséñeme cómo comienza.
Speaker 8 Vamos a picar el chile y el tomate y la cebolla.
Mando Rayo Tell me a little about your family, how many girls do you have?
Speaker 8 Yo tengo cinco niñas y tengo dos niños.
Mando Rayo Siete.
Speaker 8 Seven, seven babies.
Mando Rayo Bueno, tiene que ser bastante tacos, ¿verdad?
Speaker 8 Yes, a lot of tacos, of course.
Mando Rayo When I first stepped into her home, I felt comfortable. I felt like I’d been there before. In fact, it reminded me a lot of growing up. Just kind of like those simple things that we had. You know, not a big home, but lots of kids running around and lots of love. And of course the olores of the cooking and the tortillas kind of going back and forth. And of course she made huevos a la Mexicana for us. I’m like, man, you’re speaking my love language. She was making right there on the spot, fresh tortillas de maiz. El huevo y las tortillas suavcitas. Y lo con el cerrando.
Speaker 8 Imagine that!
Mando Rayo Now we’re going into how she was detained by ICE by just going to the store on her birthday with her daughter.
Speaker 8 Well, as soon as I got on the bus, I didn’t get nervous, I mean, I don’t owe anything. So, he asked for his license and my sister gave it to him, she went there and checked. And she said, I’m just going to give you a warning. Yes. And then she went back again and came back and told me, I want to see your ID. And I said, but why? If I didn´t do anything, if you want, I get off the bus and I just got on.
Mando Rayo Si, si, si.
Speaker 8 Then he said, no, I need your ID. But I want to state trooper
Mando Rayo One state trooper. Mm-hmm. Okay.
Speaker 8 And he said, I need your ID, and I said, but for what? And then he told me again, and then I gave it to him. And my daughter turned around. She said, mom, you’re making a call. And I started crying because I was sick with anxiety, so she gave me an anxiety attack. And my son said, oh, he’s talking. And in less than five minutes, I had immigration on one side. And he told them, no, we have to take you. And I said, why not? I didn’t do anything wrong. I said do you work for the good or for the bad? So I said I have a case, but since they didn’t take me in that case, since I don’t have anything fixed, I was just starting to fix it. And they wanted the A number. And I gave them the A, and then I told my sister Osk, that we are going to put a monitor on her feet. And my sister said, no, she can go tomorrow. He said, no, you have to go now. You leave today or in two days. He said no. And that’s when they took me to the downtown station. And then they put me in a room. An officer took me out of a room to read my obligations, which I had to do, and everything. So he put me back in, and then he took me back out, and he showed me a girl who wasn’t me. He said this is you. I told him it wasn’t me. Then, according to the wrongdoing, they told me to get married to be taken to detention, and they took me there.
Mando Rayo Imagine it’s your birthday and you wanna celebrate it with your family. You bring your daughter along, you go into HEB and you come out and you get into the car. You’re not even the driver. And you get stopped by a state trooper who asks for your identification. She hands it over. Within five minutes, an ICE agent arrives. She shared that when the ICE agent arrived and asked for a documentation, she shared it. She’s had a case with American Gateways and the ICE agent wasn’t having it. He was like, you know, you have to come with me now. I don’t know if you’re going to get out today or in two days or in 2 months. Her daughter was with her in the back seat with her sister too. And she didn’t know what to do. So they took her and in fact, she was held for 2 months, I asked her how she felt when she was there. She just felt like very scared and she was held in a cell with 50 people, 50 other women. She was just felt so desperate, she didn’t know what to do and finally she was released two months later. We have to understand what people are going through and how they’re impacted by all these immigration raids and the reasons why now she’s staying at home, she’s cooking at home. She makes sure that she has a family network. Her mom and her sisters and her siblings and cousins, the small community, in fact, how she makes money is by selling plates for their other family members. She also shared how she’s trying to keep herself safe by having other family member go to the store. She definitely does not get into cars. She walks everywhere and takes the bus because she feels like in a car. You’re more likely to get stopped by ICE agents or state troopers. And so she’s not going outside because of this fear.
Jerry Quijano That was Mando Rayo, host of the Tacos of Texas podcast. That was a little excerpt of the first episode from this newest season. We’re gonna have a link to that episode in today’s podcast, Show Notes. Well, that is it for us today here on Austin Signal. You can find more about the stories we shared with you today in the Show Notes and at kut.org slash signal. Just a reminder before we get out of here, we are still under a heat advisory until tomorrow night at 7. Forecast at high of 104 today, 105 tomorrow. No jokes, stay hydrated, stay in the shade, take some breaks if you can. Keep it tuned in to KUT News for the latest. This is Austin Signal, our team is Jake Perlman, Alexandra Hart, Kristen Cabrera, and I’m your host, Jerry Quijano. We’ll talk to you tomorrow.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
