Over a dozen protestors were taken into custody on Monday night in Austin, Texas, as a show of solidarity with ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles escalated into a confrontation with law enforcement, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced. CBS Austin reported that the Austin Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety conducted the arrests at protests where participants voiced their opposition to ICE operations. "Peaceful protesting is legal. But once you cross the line, you will be arrested," Abbott stated, abbreviating a harsher sentiment with "FAFO."
As per CBS Austin, authorities, including the Austin Police, deployed tear gas to disperse protestors gathered outside the JJ Pickle Federal Building, which functions as an ICE processing center. The police declared the assembly unlawful shortly before 9 p.m., following multiple warnings. Some protesters escalated the situation by throwing paint and vandalizing the building, as reported by CBS Austin's Andrew Freeman. In solidarity with the actions in Los Angeles, where National Guard and Marines were deployed under direct orders from President Trump, the Party of Socialism and Liberation and another decentralized group convened at the federal building in Austin. "We are not outnumbered. We are all in this together," said CBS Austin, Laiba Khan, an organizer with the Party of Socialism and Liberation.
Earlier on Monday, a sizable crowd assembled in Austin, prompted by an Instagram flyer posted by the Austin-area anti-capitalist group Party for Socialism and Liberation, which called for an "emergency protest" to demand an end to ICE's presence in cities and deportation activities. This action was reported to have been set in motion after a series of ICE arrests in Los Angeles and the subsequent deployment of the California National Guard and U.S. Marines by the Trump administration. Concho Valley Homepage documented the demonstrators chanting, echoing the calls for unity and resistance, "We will not put up with ICE. Say it once, say it twice." The march originated at the Texas State Capitol and progressed toward the J.J. Pickle Federal Building.
The protest reportedly split into smaller groups following initial demonstrations, with remaining protestors convening outside the Capitol fence. DPS troopers employed tear gas and pepper spray at different points, as reported by Concho Valley Homepage, and at one instance targeted a group on 9th and Congress. Following dispersal attempts by law enforcement, the crowd's numbers dwindled significantly before culminating at 6th Street. Governor Abbott's midnight announcement confirmed the arrests, uttering a stern warning against crossing the legal threshold during protests. Meanwhile, Bat City Jail Support, a community activist group, urged the public to gather outside Travis County Jail in a show of support for those detained.
