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.
The Austin Signal is a production
of KUT News, hosted by
Jerry Quijano.
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.
Thanks for having me on Jerry.
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.
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.
Okay, but you said you haven't been
able yet to verify that with local
law enforcement.
That's correct, but the emails have
been sent.
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?
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.
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?
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.
What have you heard from local
activist groups in Hayes County?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
Thanks for having me on Jury.
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.
Of course. Thanks, sir.
So, where did this apology happen?
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.
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
Andrew, what do we know about where
Any is right now?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.