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A person was detained last week by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Kyle. The man had to be transported to the hospital, according to local police, and the KUT Newsroom is working to get more details on the story.
An attorney for the student who was deported while flying back to Austin for a holiday says the federal government admitted it violated a court order when it deported her to Honduras. Any López Belloza, an Austin-raised student at Babson College outside of Boston, was detained after trying to fly home to Austin before Thanksgiving. We’ll have more about her story and her status.
It’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we’ll hear from him through archival audio in a reflection from the podcast In Black America.
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 [00:00:09] The person was detained last week by federal immigration and customs enforcement officers in Kyle. The man had to be transported to the hospital, according to local police, and the KUT newsroom is working to get more details on the story. We’re going to share the latest updates. And an attorney for the student who was deported while flying back to Austin for a holiday says the federal government admitted it violated a court order when it sent her to Honduras. Any Lopez-Vellosa, an Austin-raised student at Babson College outside of Boston was detained after trying to fly home before Thanksgiving. We’re gonna have more about her story and her status on today’s show.
KUT Announcer: Laurie Gallardo [00:00:45] The Austin Signal is a production of KUT News, hosted by Jerry Quijano.
Jerry Quijano [00:00:50] And it’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We’re gonna hear from him. That’s coming up on Austin Signal. Howdy out there, thank you for tuning in. This is Austin Signal, it’s January 19th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Thanks for spending part of it here with us. We’ve got a lot to share with you on today’s show, including Dr. King’s voice himself coming up a bit later. For now, let’s get you an update from the KUT newsroom. Austin’s long-delayed light rail project just got a crucial green light this month from the Trump administration. Federal transportation officials have formally signed off on the project’s lengthy environmental review. It clears a major hurdle for Project Connect after years of lawsuits and political fights over the city’s 9.8-mile starter system. We’re going to have more about this at KUT.org, and you can find more from us at Kut.org slash signal. Let’s get into today’s show. Last Thursday, immigration and customs enforcement operations were conducted in the cities of Kyle and Buda. With one person and Kyle being taken to the hospital after their encounter with ICE officers. Since then, there have been several protests in the area against these operations. For more about what’s been going on, we’re speaking with Travis County reporter, Katy McAfee. Katy, thanks for coming on the show.
Katy McAfee [00:02:18] Thanks for having me on Jerry.
Jerry Quijano [00:02:19] So let’s get people caught up to speed on Friday. KUT News reported about a man who was detained by ICE and Kyle. Tell us the story.
Katy McAfee [00:02:27] Yeah, so on Thursday, the Kyle Police Department released a statement saying a man was detained by ICE in the city and had to be sent to the hospital. I asked Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra about it, and these are his words. He said that the man was beat up by ICE and that he was bleeding from his face. We also obtained a video from a woman who was near the incident on Thursday morning. And just to be clear, we are still working on independently verifying that this video is of the same incident that we’re talking about. And in that video, you can see three ICE agents on top of the one man, and they are all coming out of an unmarked car.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:05] Okay, but you said you haven’t been able yet to verify that with local law enforcement.
Katy McAfee [00:03:09] That’s correct, but the emails have been sent.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:11] Okay, okay. So tell us that we’re speaking about this one incident. What other ice activity has been going on in Hays County that we know about?
Katy McAfee [00:03:18] Yeah, so we know that ICE was active in Buda, too. Buda city officials announced early Thursday morning that ICE intended to park at the city hall, but Buda officials asked them to park somewhere else. And in this announcement, they said that they are not involved in the operation at all. Other than that, Buda City officials wouldn’t confirm what vehicle ICE is operating out of. But again, I talked to Judge Ruben Becerra about it, and he said they are out of a large, white, unmarked van.
Jerry Quijano [00:03:48] Okay, it seems Judge Ruben Becerra has been pretty outspoken since these operations have been going on. You said a few things there. What else have you heard from him? And what else have heard from Hays County officials about these operations?
Katy McAfee [00:04:01] Yeah, Judge Becerra has definitely been among the more forthcoming officials in Hayes County about what’s going on. I spoke with him on Friday about what happened. And a big takeaway from that conversation was he said he supports local law enforcement, but does not at all agree with how ICE is operating in the county. Here’s a quote from that interview. He said, they are not trained in de-escalation. They are not trained on how to take someone down. They’re not trained as we would expect them to be. They’re being run through like if it was the draft and we were in Vietnam.
Jerry Quijano [00:04:33] What have you heard from local activist groups in Hayes County?
Katy McAfee [00:04:36] Yeah, local groups and, you know, even just people in the neighborhood have been very outspoken about what’s happening. Even Friday morning, right after this incident that we’ve been reporting on happened, there were people protesting ICE at a busy intersection. And then yesterday, orgAnyzation Mano Amiga, they held a protest that more than 100 people ended up showing out to. And local activists, the message that they’ve really been pushing was for people to know their rights. And another thing they’ve been saying a lot is telling people to use their phones to protect them and record any ice activity they see.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:11] The KUT newsroom has been working to bring coverage on these protests both on the website kut.org as well as our social media channels. I’m guessing that these protests are likely to continue. What do we know so far about protest activity this week in Hayes County or even here in Austin?
Katy McAfee [00:05:25] Yeah, definitely. We do know about a protest here in Austin happening tomorrow afternoon, and I believe there is another one that will be led by the Party of Socialism and Liberation. That one’s scheduled on Friday, and we’re keeping an eye out for any others.
Jerry Quijano [00:05:39] Okay well speaking of keeping an eye out, there’s a lot transpiring in the story again. The incident happened Friday, we first reported on, excuse me, the incident happened on Thursday. We first reported about it on Friday. What else are you following? What else is the KUT News following, KUT newsroom following in regards to this story?
Katy McAfee [00:05:56] Yeah, we’re definitely not done covering the story. There’s a lot to follow up on. We need to follow-up on the status of the man who was detained and hospitalized by ICE on Thursday morning. We’re asking the Sheriff’s Department about any others who were detained over the weekend. And another thing I’m trying to find out is if ICE is still stationed in Hays County or where else in central Texas they might be.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:17] Okay well we have been speaking with Travis County reporter Katy McAfee again. KUT Newsroom has been doing coverage online on our website kut.org on the KUT app and on our social media channels and I’m sure that will continue to be the case. We had some great help from our multimedia team this weekend as well as Katy. You can find more of her reporting at kut dot org and we’re going to have a link in the podcast show notes as well. Katy thanks for coming on the show.
Katy McAfee [00:06:41] Thanks for having me on Jury.
Jerry Quijano [00:06:51] 19-Year-old Any Lucia Lopez Bellosa fled Honduras with her mother when she was 7 years old. She grew up in Austin, where her parents still live, and while attending her fall semester of college in Boston, tried to surprise them with a visit for Thanksgiving. She was arrested by ICE officials at the airport, and despite a court order, flown to Texas, then deported within a span of 48 hours. Now, the U.S. Government is admitting it made a mistake by violating that court order. For more, we are talking with KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber. Andrew, thanks for coming on the show.
Andrew Weber [00:07:23] Of course. Thanks, sir.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:24] So, where did this apology happen?
Andrew Weber [00:07:27] Simply happened in federal court and that’s important because this is a case that has drawn a lot of attention nationally and, um, from, I will, I will note from like a lot bipartisan lawmakers, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle at state and federal levels have come out and, and sort of questioned why Lopez Belloza was, was detained and deported.
Jerry Quijano [00:07:48] And we had you on the show talking, I guess it was probably last month, and we heard a little bit then from Any’s lawyer, what was the lawyer’s reaction to the apology?
Andrew Weber [00:07:59] Yeah, her attorney, Todd Pomerleau, was very surprised by this. These are sorts of cases that, you know, don’t get a lot of this, like, sort of attention, uh, and certainly this, in this sort of political climate, um, with ICE, you know, going into cities in which cities, uh city officials don’t want them. He was surprised to hear that. Attorneys for the federal government were basically lying prostrate before the judge and saying, we’re sorry.
Todd Pomerleau [00:08:28] They can say yes, they can say no. They’ve said sorry. They didn’t go to court the other day and be like, nope, dismiss the case. We’re not saying we’re sorry. They could have taken that approach and I’m gonna recognize it for what it is. It’s an act of contrition and I am gonna assume good faith. Before this apology, I wasn’t assuming good faith
Jerry Quijano [00:08:47] That was a reaction from her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau. Again, Any also had a reaction to that apology. Here she is in an interview with CNN.
Any López Belloza [00:08:55] Hearing that they have apologized to the mistake that they’ve made, I accept their apologies and I hope that based on this apology I’m able to return back to my studies and also to be home with my parents.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:09] Andrew, what do we know about where Any is right now?
Andrew Weber [00:09:12] We know that she’s in Honduras. Our previous reporting, the last time I checked with Todd Palmerlo, he said that she was with her grandparents.
Jerry Quijano [00:09:20] Now this is not the first time it has been reported that ICE violates a judicial order. Does this apology mean that we are likely to see less mistakes like this in the future?
Andrew Weber [00:09:30] That’s a good question. And I don’t have an immediate answer for it in, in this motion that they filed, they apologized, which is really kind of an administrative apology. It’s not, you know, obviously it’s not a direct apology to Lopez Belloza. It’s an apology to her attorney, Todd Palmerlo, but they, they basically pinned all of this on an employee who didn’t know that there was this order to keep on a, in the country for at least 72 hours. So I don’t really think that there’s necessarily any broad, you know, sort of sweeping impact as it relates to this apology, but it does sort of tee up this case going forward. And specifically, Todd, the attorney, Todd Pomelo, filed a motion Friday, right after I talked to him, and he laid out how this could go forward.
Todd Pomerleau [00:10:22] But the remedy they were proposing is inadequate. They were saying, look, we retrained our staff at ICE and what to do with a court order. I mean, okay, that’s prospective harm, right? You’re fixing, you know, hopefully there’s another, there’s not another Annie Lopez that gets illegally deported in the future. That’s great. You did something remedial to fix future problems. What about what you did to her? And that’s really where we’re at right now. And the judge, and I think the judge recognized this too, because he was kind of like, look she’s a college student, she got a full ride. You know, is this still available?
Jerry Quijano [00:10:56] Okay, Andrew, last question. You mentioned teeing up the case. Where does Any’s case go from here? Does the apology affect it in any way?
Andrew Weber [00:11:04] The apology does affect it in that the federal government is not going to be held in contemptive court, which is obviously, you know, good for their argument. But within that motion that Todd filed, that Todd Pomerleau filed, I should say, he laid out a couple of options, one of which would be she can return to the U.S. And she would be under sort of supervision, sort of like parole. Another would be that she is allowed to return to country while her application for a green card is being processed. And she can go back to school and back to her life.
Jerry Quijano [00:11:37] All right, we have been speaking with KUT’s government accountability reporter, Andrew Weber, you can find his story at kut.org. And again, we’ll have more in our podcast show notes. Andrew, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you, Jerry. It is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and here in Austin the city marked the return of the annual MLK Day March. That march was canceled the last couple of years because of inclement weather. And though the day is still chilly, the sun was shining as thousands of marchers gathered at the Capitol to start their journey to Houston Tillotson University. Here is Joya Hayes, Capitol March coordinator with the Austin Area Heritage Council, and puts on the event.
Joya Hayes [00:12:21] Dr. King believed that progress begins when ordinary people come together with peaceful, respectful ways to serve their communities and stand up for human dignity. This day is not just about what’s going wrong. This is not a day to just look at the politics of America. This is a day for us to have shared values, kindness, service, unity and hope. Participating in this march and rally is a way to reflect those values, to show up for one another and to reaffirm the positive change that starts when we choose to walk forward together.
Jerry Quijano [00:12:59] The festival portion of the event goes until 4pm today at Houston Tillotson University. We’re going to have more about MLK Day coming up after this break. You’re listening to Austin Signal. This is Austin Signal. Thank you for spending part of your Monday. Again, it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And we wanted to celebrate with a little something special to wrap up today’s episode. So we needed the help of the one and only John L. Hanson Jr. He is the host of the podcast in Black America produced right here at KUT KUTX Studios. John has a little remembrance and a little audio from Dr. King himself. Let’s pass it on over to John.
John L. Hanson Jr [00:13:54] Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Is considered by many as the father of the civil rights movement. Born on Tuesday, January 15, 1929 at the family home in Atlanta, Georgia. He was christened Michael Luther King, but in 1934, Daddy King changed his name after young Martin experienced racial prejudice. In 1944, at the age of 15, he graduated high school and entered Morehouse College in Atlanta. With intention on becoming a medical doctor, but changed his mind in his junior year. In April 1948, King received his bachelor’s degree in sociology at Intercrojitheological Seminary in Chester, PennsylvAnya. In May 1951, he graduated with a bachelor’s of divinity degree and as valedictorian and student body president. In 1955, he earned his doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University. In spring 1963, King’s nonviolent tactics were put to their most severe test in Birmingham, Alabama during a mass protest for fair hiring practices and the desegregation of department stores. Police brutality used against the march had dramatized the plight of African Americans to the nation at large with enormous impact. King and others were arrested but his voice was not silent. While in his cell, he read a published statement by eight Alabama clergymen that criticized his activities as untimely and unwise. On the margins of the newspaper, he composed his classic reply letter from a Birmingham jail to refute his critics.
Martin Luther King Jr [00:15:30] In your statement, you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man? Because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t is like condeming Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock, isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? More and more, I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people good will. We will have to repent in this generation. Not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock. Of human dignity. I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are at present misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal in America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny. Before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson etched the majestic words of the Declaration of Independence across the pages of history we were here. For more than two centuries our forebears labored in this country without wages. They made cotton king, they built the homes of their masters, while suffering gross injustice and shameful humiliation. And yet out of a bottomless vitality, they continued to thrive and develop. If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of the almighty God are embodied in our echoing demands. Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk. But what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think long thoughts, and pray long prayers. If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I’ve said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me. I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or as a civil rights leader, but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear-drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow, the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty. Yours for the cause of peace and brother-hood, Martin Luther King, Jr.
John L. Hanson Jr [00:19:50] In 1957 in New Orleans seeking to build upon the success of the Montgomery Bus Boycott with the hope of upgrading the status of southern blacks and America’s poor, King summed together a number of black leaders to lay the foundation for the orgAnyzation now known as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, SCLC. King was elected its first president and he soon began helping other communities orgAnyze their own protest against discrimination. The Honorable Andrew Young, former Mayor of Atlanta and U.S. Ambassador, was one of King’s most trusted advisors.
Andrew Young [00:20:22] Looking back on it, we think of those as the best days of our lives. Actually at the time it was, we really didn’t know what we were doing, we knew things were wrong and that somebody had to do something about it and we just stumbled along from one thing to the other until we found a way to make it work. And fortunately most of us had read a lot about India and we understood some of the on violent methods of Gandhi. And we just experimented until we found out how to orgAnyze people. Nobody was trained as an orgAnyzer. We knew the black community. We knew cities that we were working in fairly well. And we learned gradually over a period of time how to get things done. What type of impact did the late Dr. Martin Luther King have on you at that time? Well, Martin was an amazing young man. He had been sort of thrust in the leadership. He never really wanted it. And yet he couldn’t get away from it. And he was essentially trying to do something for other people. That kind of dedication and the sort of things that he said matter of factly. If a person hadn’t found something that they’re willing to die for, they’re probably not fit to live anyway. You know, somebody dropped that on you in a joking kind of friendly conversation. It makes you think, you know, what is it that I’m willing to died for? And you begin to think about your life and think about other people in a new way. I mean, he was amazing that all of the things that he did, and he never lived to be 40 years old, and yet in the midst of it all, he was still privately a very easygoing, a friendly, joking, clowning, you know, lovable guy.
Jerry Quijano [00:22:07] You can find the full episode of In Black America with more speeches from Dr. King wherever you listen to your podcasts. And that is it for today’s show. Thank you for kicking off the week here with us on Austin Signal. If you have the day off, we hope you’re enjoying yourself out there. And if you’re working like us today, you got this. You are one minute closer to getting home. Thank you to Katy McAfee, Andrew Weber, Luz Moreno Lozano. And John L. Hanson Jr. For making today’s episode a reality. And a special shout out to KUT multimedia journalists, Laurie Ann Willett and Patricia Lim for their coverage of the protest this weekend. You can see their work on our social media channels. Rayna Sevilla is Austin Signals technical director, and Kristen Cabrera is the show’s managing producer. I’m Jerry Quijano, I’ll keep trying to talk better. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. Have a great day, thanks for tuning in.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
