Body camera shows federal agent arrest undocumented parent near Austin school
AUSTIN (KXAN) – At 8:16 a.m. on April 30, a group of students waited outside Dobie Middle School in Austin for class to start. School buses were making drop-offs, as Texas Department of Public Safety troopers pulled over Omar Gallardo Rodriguez and a woman he called his wife, Denisse Parra Vargas.
School footage KXAN viewed shows students could see part of the traffic stop that led to federal authorities transporting the couple and their three children – two of whom were born in the United States – to Mexico a week later.
The traffic stop lasted nearly an hour. DPS body camera video obtained by KXAN shows two troopers walking up to the white pickup truck and explaining, in Spanish, they stopped the couple because of expired plates. Troopers asked the driver, Rodriguez, if he had lived in Mexico and how long they lived in the U.S.
Texas students worry 'no one is going to be home for me' amid deportation push
The troopers walked back to their car, and dash camera video shows less than 10 minutes later a federal agent removed Rodriguez from the truck and placed him in handcuffs.
Rodriguez had been deported three times before, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A judge had issued a court order for Parra Vargas to leave the country back in 2019, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The couple explained to officers their oldest daughter had traveled with Parra Vargas to the U.S., but their youngest two children were born in the country. The federal agent asked Parra Vargas where her kids were, and she answered that they were at school.
'I want to take them with me please,' Parra Vargas told the federal agent.
SOURCES: ICE sends family of five to Mexico, including US-born kids, after DPS detainment near Austin school
During the traffic stop, the federal agent told the couple they would fit Parra Vargas with an ankle monitor and allow her to pick up her children but instructed her to report to their offices within 24 hours.
'When she comes back tomorrow, they will send them off together as a family – and we won't prosecute him [Rodriguez] because he has been deported before,' the federal agent is heard saying on body camera video.
DHS said in a tweet, and in a statement to KXAN, it was giving undocumented mothers facing deportation the option to take their U.S.-born children with them or leave them with a designated person – pushing back on assertions the federal agency was deporting children who are U.S. citizens.
The legal team for Parra Vargas and her family said, for many families, it's an impossible choice.
'DHS is taking U.S. citizen children and telling them and telling their parents that they will be separated unless they give up their home and country,' Texas Civil Rights Senior Attorney Daniel Hotoum told KXAN on May 9.
According to DPS officials, the traffic stop was conducted by a regional tactical strike team – and in this case troopers were working alongside a Homeland Security investigator. The state agency has not disclosed why it was operating near the school or if Rodriguez was the target of the strike team operation.
Video shows traffic stop near school that led to ICE sending family to Mexico
At the start of President Donald Trump's second presidential term, DHS rescinded a long-standing policy that discouraged immigration enforcement on or near 'sensitive locations' such as schools or churches.
Since that policy change in January, Texas school districts have been working to develop guidance for campuses in the event that immigration enforcement officers attempt to enter a school or request specific information about a student.
Austin Independent School District officials have publicly released their guidance for situations in which law enforcement, including ICE, attempt to enter a campus or access student records. The policy includes instructions to call the district's legal team to review the identification and legal documentation presented.
The district told KXAN it was aware that an Austin ISD parent was detained near the Dobie campus. District officials have not provided details as to its response or review of the traffic stop involving a federal immigration agent.
Investigative Photojournalist Richie Bowes, News Producer Santos Gonzalez, Evening Anchor Daniel Marin, Assignment Desk Manager Chelsea Moreno, News Producer Jose Torres, and KXAN+ Anchor Esmeralda Zamora contributed to this report.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Former Exeter flanker Ewers retires aged 34
Dave Ewers is regarded as one of the key players during Exeter's trophy-winning years [Getty Images] Former Exeter flanker Dave Ewers has retired from rugby union. The 34-year-old came up through Exeter's academy ranks and was a key part of the side that reached six consecutive Premiership finals and won the 2020 European Champions Cup. Advertisement Injury kept him out of Exeter's 2017 Premiership final win over Wasps, but he started in their 2020 final victory against the same opponents having also started the Champions Cup final the week before. Ewers was called up to the England squad in February 2016, but a series of injuries meant he never went on to win an England cap. He made 226 Exeter appearances and scored 40 tries before joining Ulster in the summer of 2023. One Dave Ewers' greatest moments came when he helped Exeter win the European Champions Cup in 2020 [Rex Features] The Zimbabwe-born forward has spent the past season playing for Cape Town-based side Stormers in the United Rugby Championship where he played nine times. "Thank you to Rob (Baxter, Exeter director of rugby) and everyone involved at Exeter for giving me the opportunity all those years ago, was a special journey going from the Championship to winning the double in 2020," Ewers said on social media as he announced his retirement. Advertisement "To all the boys, thank you for all the memories, I feel nothing but blessed to have experienced everything along the way with you all, on and off the pitch. "We shared some incredible memories that I will never forget. "A special mention to all the backroom staff of everywhere I've been, and especially Exeter where I had all my injuries. Thank you for getting me back on the pitch. "To all the fans, near and far, thank you for all the support over the years, it's meant a lot to me."
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Real Madrid will consider signing fourth defender this summer
Real Madrid intend to head to the Club World Cup with an almost entirely new backline this summer, but they may not be finished yet with the strengthening of their defence. Following the signings of right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and central defender Dean Huijsen, Los Blancos are expected to bring in a left-back. That presumably would cast doubt over the futures of Ferland Mendy and Fran Garcia. Real Madrid have been in talks with Benfica for Spanish left-back Alvaro Carreras, with personal terms already agreed. Benfica are digging their heels in over his €50m release clause, which Los Blancos are keen to bring down. They have a week to resolve the issue, with the pre-Club World Cup transfer window ending next Tuesday. Real Madrid will assess backline after Club World Cup New manager Xabi Alonso is set to use a 4-3-3 formation initially in the United States, and will work towards using that formation. Currently he and his staff do not believe they have the pieces to play in a back three, and as such will move forward with two central defenders. Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba are all coming back from injuries, while Raul Asencio and Dean Huijsen come into the tournament in the best form. Image via Europa Press There remains doubt about their defensive options though, and Marca say that they will be under examination during the Club World Cup. Real Madrid will consider signing a second central defender this summer if they are not convinced by what they see. Academy duo to be given a chance While the starlet of La Fabrica before his cruciate ligament injury last summer was 17-year-old Joan Martinez, Alonso will assess two of their other emerging talents at the Club World Cup. Jacobo Ramon began playing under Carlo Ancelotti in situations of need, and was highly praised by the Italian. Meanwhile Diego Aguado, who can also play left-back is to be called up for the trip to the USA too.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The Spanish socialist nightmare that serves as a warning to Starmer's Britain
On the day of the blackouts that plunged Spain into darkness, Borja Hermoso was at work at the Almaraz nuclear plant in the west of the country. The moment Spain lost power, workers at the plant knew what to do. '[It was] something we had trained for and done simulations to prepare,' he says. It was critical to ensure the reactor shut down safely, and it went off without a hitch. 'We achieved a perfect safe stop. This was the best test we could have had and we passed with flying colours.' It was, to put it mildly, 'vindication', says Hermoso, 38, president of the works council at Almaraz, which employs thousands in a small town in Extremadura. Extraordinarily, it is also first in line for closure under the socialist government's dogged pursuit of net zero. For Hermoso, the blackouts were proof that plants like Almaraz provide much-needed stability in the electricity system. 'This government is obsessed with renewables and it seems to have an ideological component that is destabilising the electrical system.' When the plant closes in 2027, he will have to go elsewhere for work. 'I will have to move out of the area, my home region, which is sad for me. But it's much worse for people a little lower down the rung with less training, who simply won't find work in this area.' Closing nuclear plants is 'like ripping a seat out of a car,' says Izaskun García, who has been an engineer at Almaraz for 14 years. 'The investment will all be lost; the know-how that has been developed; the training.' María Guardiola Martin, president of the region and a politician in the conservative Spanish People's Party (PP), says the government's plan to shut nuclear plants and rely on renewables is 'a strategic and social error not only for Extremadura, but for all of Spain'. 'Ideology is prevailing over science in the Spanish government,' she says. At the same time, closing the plant will mean 'wiping out more than 3,000 direct and indirect jobs in one fell swoop. 'This is our largest industry, vital to our GDP, and dismantling it seriously harms the industrialisation process in our region.' Almaraz also generates 7 per cent of the nation's electricity, she says. Closing it would 'significantly reduce our country's emission-free generation capacity, diminish the security of our electricity supply, and negatively impact families and businesses across the country'. Martin has written to the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, but has 'not received a response.' She has also asked for a report from Red Eléctrica, which runs the grid, seeking clarity over 'what happened on April 28, during the blackout'. She hasn't heard from them either. To centre-right figures like Martin and, indeed, Reform and Conservative politicians in Britain, Spain is an exemplar of what can go wrong when a stridently left-wing government uses the clunking fist of the state to impose its will on a country. In the case of the energy sector, Sánchez's government has de facto control of Red Eléctrica through a golden share and put Beatriz Corredor, a socialist politician with no experience in the field, in charge. Its previous chief, it's worth noting, resigned over political meddling, accusing Sánchez's government of 'messianic' zeal in its commitment to pursuing a green agenda. You don't have to spend long in Almaraz to understand there is a human cost to all this. Eva Trujillo Jara's brother and sister both work at the plant and stand to lose their jobs. 'The closure will be a body blow to my family and a disaster for the area,' she says. 'This village lives off the plant; the day it closes, I don't know how we are going to survive. There is a lot of fear and many people will end up migrating away. The village will be emptied out, like so many in Spain.' But there is a political cost too, an ideological battle which has echoes far beyond Spain, in the UK too. The blackout 'shows the system is not ready to run only with renewables,' says García. 'The transition has been too rapid and the planning insufficient. We need another 10-15 years to work out how to use only renewables and in the meantime, we cannot do without nuclear energy.' The Spanish Prime Minister doesn't appear to agree. What may or may not have caused the blackouts that hit on April 28 and lasted 23 hours is the subject of intense speculation in Spain. Many have pointed the finger at the government's insistence on accelerating the grid's reliance on renewables. A report has claimed Sánchez's government ordered the national grid operator to intensify the use of renewables a week before the power failed 'in order to present itself to Europe as a pioneer country', as reported by the conservative newspaper ABC. The paper claimed that 'unstable programmes' had been deployed, feeding the grid with as much renewable energy as possible. Spain's target is an electricity mix in which 81 per cent is derived from renewables by 2030. Last year renewables accounted for 56.8 per cent of the mix. On the day of the blackout, according to the report, Spain was approaching 73 per cent. A government spokesman has denied the claims, saying 'no order was given for any experiment or so-called unstable programmes'. If the plan was indeed to present Spain as a 'pioneer', it had the opposite effect. As 49 million of his countrymen were left in the dark for hours in scenes which many described as being reminiscent of the Second World War, Sánchez's Spain presented itself as a poster child not for sustainable prowess, but for what really happens when a net zero ideology is pursued at all costs. In Almaraz, a large solar park is being built, even as the nuclear plant prepares for shutdown. Blackouts and joblessness: the town has come to represent what life looks like after eight years under a socialist government fixated on renewables, and with the power to impose its ideology on companies and households. If there was ever a warning to Ed Miliband and Labour as they approach the end of their first year in power, it can surely be found in this remote town in Extremadura, where 3,000 people are on a countdown clock to unemployment. Spain has not historically been a natural test case for Britain. Our cultural sensibility and climate are a world away from that of the Iberian peninsula; our economies and international heft are not comparable (Spain's GDP is $1.8 trillion to our $3.8 trillion). And yet, as we hurtle further down a road laid by the Miliband, Reeves and Rayner vision for Britain, Sánchez's leftist state has never looked so familiar. On energy, the parallels are particularly striking. Britain could only dream of the kind of nuclear power Spain has long boasted and is now primed to scrap. And yet, in Ed Miliband's time in office, plans for a new nuclear power station on Anglesey have been thrown into doubt, and the £300m investment pledged by the Conservatives which was meant to make the UK the first commercial producer of advanced nuclear fuel outside Russia has fallen by the wayside. Meanwhile, the planned shutdown of four of our own nuclear power stations was delayed in December by French operator EDF amid fears that the government's pursuit of net zero could increase the risk of electricity price hikes and shortages. But Miliband's efforts to run full pelt in the direction of decarbonisation don't appear to be going especially well. Last month analysis by BloombergNEF revealed that he is likely poised to miss his 2030 offshore wind targets amid a lack of appetite from investors. The week before, a report suggested that it was becoming increasingly unlikely that Miliband's claim that net zero would reduce energy bills by £300 by 2030, could be achieved. Not only is a net zero crusade expensive, it could also be unsafe. Last month Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, warned that the Energy Secretary's push to achieve clean power by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions by 2050 played into the hands of China, which provides much of the technology needed to convert Britain's grid to renewable energy. 'You've got the ideological Ed Miliband pursuing zero carbon without a thought for the impact on national security,' he said. 'He probably thinks: 'I'm dealing with a more serious problem, which is climate change, and that comes first.' It's so irrational. It is seriously problematic.' Irrational and problematic. Two words that could equally be applied to various government policies in both Britain and Spain. If Spain is the canary in the coal mine (or the sparrow in the solar farm) when it comes to energy, then you only have to look at their approach to taxes, growing migrant problems, unemployment rates and failing rail network to see there are plenty of other areas gasping for life after eight years in the grips of socialist rule – and there are lessons to be learnt here in Britain. Woe betide anyone who enjoys enough success to have a holiday home, whether in Sotogrande or Somerset. The Spanish government is determined to saddle non-EU citizens with a 100 per cent tax when buying holiday homes in a bid to tackle its housing crisis. Foreigners make up 15 per cent of the Spanish housing market, with Britons owning the largest proportion. That's 15 per cent of the housing market also, you could safely assume, contributing to builders' wages, to local economies, to the country's tourism revenue. Even for those who live in the country on a more permanent basis, Spain has become a 'tax trap', as one international law firm puts it. Expats are being 'fleeced' by Spain's authorities, says Amsterdam & Associates LLP, which launched the 'Spanish Tax Pickpockets' campaign, highlighting the 'punitive tax claims' that foreigners who move there fall victim to. It's a trend which should 'cause panic in any country with like-minded governments,' says John O'Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayers Alliance, who says the Spanish approach to taxing foreign homeowners is tantamount to 'economic self harm', while Labour seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet with their own efforts to target second home owners. Where in Scandinavian countries, O'Connell says, owning multiple properties is 'celebrated and encouraged', 'here we seem to think it's a sign that you're particularly evil somehow.' 'It's this really basic misunderstanding of economics,' he says. 'If you tax something you just get the revenue from it. Well, actually, what might happen is people might sell up.' The 'second and third round effects' of taxes like this are skimmed over, he says. 'They think they're small low-level tax tweaks but actually they have a huge impact on economic decision making, not just of businesses but of individuals too.' It leads to 'capital flight … and you don't end up with the tax receipts you intended in the first place.' Meanwhile, in Britain, he says, the chancellor is likely to come back for 'more tax rises later in the year.' And where will she look? In all likelihood, 'people who are more mobile with their capital.' What is happening in Spain should serve as a warning to us, says O'Connell. Taxes like this 'send a very strong signal that the country is not open for business, that we don't celebrate growth and we don't encourage prosperity and wealth creation'. 'While other countries are going in that direction, we should be considering going in the exact opposite and saying hey, hang on, Britain is open for business and we do value private enterprise and we're not just an enormous public sector with some taxpayers who pay for it.' Eventually, things just stop working. Miquel Vila is a political consultant from Catalonia. He is based in New York but travels home regularly. Every year, he notes the various ways things in his home country have grown 'progressively worse'. 'It's getting worse in a way that it's gradual, but after eight years all these things begin to add up,' he says. After the blackouts, he was confused by what seemed to be a strangely muted reaction amongst friends and family. 'No one was really angry,' he says. 'It's kind of accepting: this is the new normal. Things are going to be breaking here and there.' He felt as though the blackouts were another sign of 'the general decay of everything'. Adding to that feeling, on May 20, landline and mobile services were brought down across the country after a botched system upgrade by Telefónica, the Spanish telecoms giant. Meanwhile inflation continues to rise, a problem that right wing opponents of Sánchez's government blame on excessive public spending. Similar warnings have been issued in Britain since the pandemic. For Vila, 'using massive public spending to cope with the hangover of the pandemic' in Spain hasn't helped. And it isn't only in the supermarkets where people are failing to get enough bang for their buck. Spain's nationalised rail system is, Vila says, deteriorating. 'Trains have been bad for many years,' he says, citing a lack of air conditioning in the baking summer months and constant delays. Days after the recent blackouts, the country's rail system was in chaos after copper wire was taken from five different parts of the high speed line between Madrid and Seville, leaving more than 10,000 travellers suffering delays. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, said they were scenes that 'do not befit the fourth-largest eurozone economy'. 'People don't deserve to be paying more taxes for worse services. Spain needs to function again and that's my aim.' The party's economic spokesman, Juan Bravo, called for a full audit of the railway, describing the chaos as 'the new normal under an overwhelmed government.' These are familiar scenes, but they're particularly prescient in the week when Labour's first renationalised train set off from Woking to Waterloo to great fanfare, and began with a stint on a rail replacement bus. Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, declared it to be a 'new dawn'. As the Telegraph's Philip Johnston pointed out, it's perhaps more accurately described as 'a step into the past'. In October, Sánchez unveiled his plans to make it easier for migrants to settle in Spain. 'Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed-off, poor country,' he told parliament, setting out a stance at odds with much of the rest of Europe. In the first days of 2025, an influx of migrants arrived in Spain, with nearly 800 people landing on the Canary Islands between January 6 and 8 alone. Last year, an opinion survey showed immigration was increasingly a cause for concern amongst the Spanish public, with 30 per cent considering it to be one of the country's major problems. In Britain, Sir Keir Starmer's 'island of strangers' speech might have done a certain amount to reposition Labour as being tough on immigration, but it's still the case that more voters (35 per cent according to a YouGov poll) see the PM as being pro-immigration than against it. Meanwhile, critics say it was all rhetoric. While, 'I welcome what he said,' says Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, 'there is very little of substance there, which makes me wonder whether the government actually means it or whether in fact they're trying to persuade people.' Those on the left say Sánchez's approach to migration has had a positive economic impact. Spain's economy grew by 3.2 per cent last year. 'The more people you've got actually functioning, working within the system, of course it means the economy will grow,' says Mehmet. 'But what surveys, research, studies have consistently shown in Britain is that overall migration has been a net fiscal cost going right back to the days before Tony Blair. 'Time and again there have been studies that show that ultimately the low-wage, low-skill migration that most countries in Europe have seen is a cost to the taxpayer. I don't see that it's any different in Spain to our experience here.' Vila says it feels as though immigration has 'become worse and worse'. 'In terms of GDP it's true [Spain] has one of the top growing economies in the EU. But also Spain has added around 800,000 people in the last couple of years. [...] Spain is a good example of an economy that is growing – yes, [it's] adding to the population. [But] without any productivity powers.' Five miles from Almaraz, in the village of Belvís de Monroy, Fernando Sánchez contemplates what life in the area will be like after the plant closes down. He is the mayor of the village and was a radiation protection technician at the plant for 16 years. 'This village, Almaraz and others are going to die if the plant is closed,' he says. The Spanish government is 'like a driver on the wrong side of the motorway who thinks everyone else is mad and going in the wrong direction,' says Sánchez, 42. The problem being, of course, that the driver he speaks of happens to be in power. When they decide to hurtle in the wrong direction, they force everyone to go along with them, with potentially catastrophic consequences. 'Closing nuclear plants in the current environment would be one of the biggest mistakes in the history of Spain,' he says. His advice to the UK government? 'Look at what happened with the blackout.' Sánchez is in favour of renewable energy, but not in isolation. 'Extremadura has sun, wind, hydro and nuclear energy. Any European country would love to have what we have in a single region, and we can export it as we have way more than we need.' It is now clear there is 'not enough storage capacity to run the grid on renewables,' he says. 'When a plan fails, you need to make a new one.' It's advice that those in Madrid and Westminster would do well to heed. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
