Latest news with #ParraVargas
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
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.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE deports Austin woman and her two U.S. citizen children, Mexican consulate confirms
This story has been updated to include additional information from the Mexican Consulate of Austin and a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Two children who are U.S. citizens and had been living in Austin were removed to Mexico on Wednesday alongside their mother, an immigrant without legal status, according to advocacy groups and the Mexican Consulate of Austin. Denisse Parra Vargas, 38, was detained Tuesday along with her 9-, 5- and 4-year-old children after reporting to a Homeland Security Department facility in Pflugerville for a check-in, according to Sulma Franco, an Austin-based activist with the immigrant and criminal justice advocacy group Grassroots Leadership. Carlos Enrique González Echeverría of Austin's Mexican Consulate confirmed the family's removal, stating that Parra Vargas had an active deportation order. Franco, who personally knows the family, said Parra Vargas had lived in Austin for at least seven years. Her two youngest children are U.S. citizens, born and raised in the city, Franco said. 'They were good people,' Franco said. 'They were people who were doing all that they could to provide for their families, responsibly, without trouble.' Texas Civil Rights Project lawyer Daniel Hatoum said he had confirmed that Parra Vargas and her children were in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, Tamaulipas, as of Wednesday afternoon. Franco said the family told her Parra Vargas and the children were at a shelter Wednesday, hoping to reunite with the children's father, who was deported to Nuevo Laredo in the days before Parra Vargas' deportation. The couple is originally from Mexico. The deportation of Parra Vargas and her children appears to be the latest instance of the Trump administration removing minors who are U.S. citizens amid its ongoing immigrant crackdown. Last month in Louisiana, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed a 4-year-old with stage 4 cancer after stopping the child, its mother and others. In South Texas, immigration officials also removed four young U.S. citizens, aged 6 to 15, along with their parents. One of those children had brain cancer while another had a heart disorder. 'They basically tell the family: 'Either take them with you or we're going to separate them quickly from you,'' said Hatoum, whose organization is representing the South Texas family. 'They then claim that's not really a deportation because they were given the option of going. But it certainly is in a colloquial sense.' ICE declined to answer questions about Parra Vargas or her children, referring the American-Statesman to the Department of Homeland Security for comment. In a statement given Thursday evening, the Homeland Security Department said Parra Vargas had chosen to take her children with her to Mexico rather than designate someone in the U.S. to take care of them. 'The narrative that DHS is deporting American children is false and irresponsible reporting," DHS wrote in a statement. In a joint statement Thursday afternoon, Grassroots Leadership, Texas Civil Rights Project and the Immigration Legal Rights Council said they, along with family members of Parra Vargas, were neither able to communicate with the mother during her time in detention nor talk to her about keeping the children in the country. Parra Vargas' arrest came days after the Texas Department of Public Safety stopped her and her partner near Dobie Middle School in Northeast Austin. González Echeverría said the DPS stopped the couple because the truck they were in had expired license plates, which were from Nevada. The DPS called ICE after discovering the couple's unauthorized status, González Echeverría said. Agents then arrested Parra Vargas' partner, Omar Gallardo Rodríguez, and deported him to Mexico within days, while Parra Vargas was given an ankle monitor, González Echeverría said. Gallardo Rodríguez is the father of the three children. DHS said in its statement that Parra Vargas was given a deportation order in 2019 after failing to appear at an immigration court hearing. González Echeverría said he believes Parra Vargas had a deportation order because the federal government rejected an asylum claim she made at the border in 2016. In a statement, ICE said Gallardo Rodríguez had a final deportation order and that he had previously been arrested three times for driving while intoxicated, once for assault, and another time for illegal reentry into the U.S. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ICE deports Austin woman to Mexico alongside her U.S. citizen children
Miami Herald
08-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Mom and 3 kids, including 2 citizens, deported to Mexico, TX advocacy group says
A mother and her three children were deported to Mexico after the family's advocates said they were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and taken to Laredo, Texas, an advocacy group said. Now, family and legal advocates are unable to get in touch with Denisse Parra Vargas and her 8-year-old, 5-year-old and 4-year-old children, the Texas Civil Rights Project said in a May 8 news release. McClatchy News reached out to ICE on May 8 but did not immediately receive a response. The two youngest children are U.S. citizens, according to the group. The mother had been in the United States since 2016 to escape domestic violence, advocates said. The family's interactions with ICE began on April 30 when Parra Vargas and her partner were pulled over in Austin by Texas Highway Patrol in an unmarked vehicle, advocates said. ICE detained the two as a result of the stop, advocates said, but the mother was released with an ankle monitor so she could get her kids from school. By May 2, Parra Vargas told an attorney that she was released by ICE, but she was given dates to report to Intensive Supervision Appearance Program check-ins in San Antonio, the group said. Her partner, however, was still in ICE custody and had a hearing scheduled on May 6 in Pflugerville. But when the family arrived to what they were told was a hearing or appointment, ICE detained them, advocates said. Legal and community advocates were told the mom and children were taken to a facility in Laredo, but on May 7, they were deported to Mexico, according to the group. Advocates said they do not know the whereabouts of the family and if they were separated during the deportation process. The Department of Homeland Security said the mother chose to take her children with her when she was deported, according to a statement posted in X, formerly known as Twitter. Officials said Parra Vargas was issued an order of removal in 2019. 'ICE did not allow for communication with nearby family members who were willing to keep the children and instead detained them for 24 hours in secretive locations before deporting the U.S. citizen children to Mexico. ICE was informed by the family and legal advocates that the children were U.S. citizens and ICE knowingly deported them anyway in violation of their own policies and laws. ICE has no authority to detain or deport U.S. citizens regardless of the status of their parents,' the group said in the news release.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump Deports Two More U.S. Citizen Children After Tricking Their Mom
The Trump administration apparently deported two U.S. citizen children—ages five and four—after surreptitiously luring their mother to an immigration appointment. Denisse Parra Vargas and her husband Omar had just dropped off their three children at school in Austin, Texas, last Thursday when they were pulled over by Texas state troopers ostensibly for having an expired license plate. But then, the police officers turned the couple over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement as suspected undocumented immigrants. Omar was sent to an ICE detention center and then deported to Mexico, but Parra Vargas was fitted with an electronic bracelet and told to report to a processing center near Austin on Tuesday. An Austin-based criminal justice and immigration advocacy organization, Grassroots Leadership, said to the Daily Beast that '[s]he was told that if she showed up, then she would be eligible for asylum as well as a work permit.' Parra Vargas complied, and showed up on Tuesday with her three children, two of whom are U.S. citizens, for what she thought was a routine appointment. But then she and all of her children seemed to disappear in ICE custody. Grassroots Leadership scrambled its legal team to try and find them. 'We were just trying to figure out where she was,' a spokesperson for the organization said. 'ICE was not giving us information.' Even entering Parra Vargas's information into ICE's online detainee locator wasn't showing any results. Then, Parra Vargas called the organization to tell them that she had been deported to Mexico with her three children. 'When she called from the other side of the border, she said that she signed a paper, but she wasn't sure exactly what it was,' the spokesperson said. 'She did not understand what she was signing.' ICE seems to have disregarded the fact that two of Parra Vargas's children are citizens, and could have stayed in the U.S. with a caretaker. She does not appear to have been informed of her options, Grassroots Leadership said. 'She never had a chance to consult with anybody,' the organization's spokesperson told the Daily Beast. 'Any efforts from our end to be able to advocate for her release, or even for our legal team to be able to work on her release, none of that was possible because we weren't even able to locate her.' Parra Vargas's situation fits a pattern of haphazard and cruel immigration actions from the Trump administration. Her two U.S. citizen children aren't the first Americans to be swept up by ICE or even deported in President Trump's second term. Jose Hermosillo, a 19-year-old U.S. citizen with learning disabilities, was detained by a Border Patrol officer while visiting Tucson, Arizona, and spent 10 days in ICE detention before being released. Late last month, the Trump administration was caught lying about undocumented immigrant women being deported with their U.S. citizen children. Similar to Parra Vargas, the women were prevented from communicating with legal counsel while in ICE custody. It appears that in order to get around the pesky constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, the Trump administration is deporting them anyway if they're kids.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE deports Austin woman and her U.S. citizen children, immigrant advocates say
Austin immigration activists are raising concerns after they say two U.S. citizen minors were removed to Mexico Wednesday alongside their mother, an immigrant without legal status who had resided in the city for at least seven years. Denisse Parra Vargas, 37, was detained a day earlier along with her 9-, 5-, and 4-year-old children after reporting to a Department of Homeland Security facility in Pflugerville for a check-in, according to activist Sulma Franco with Austin-based Grassroots Leadership. Parra Vargas' two youngest two children were born and raised in Austin. 'They were good people,' said Franco, who has known the family for years. 'They were people who were doing all that they could to provide for their families, responsibly, without trouble.' Texas Civil Rights Project lawyer Daniel Hatoum said he had confirmed that Vargas and her children were in Reynosa as of Wednesday afternoon. Franco said she had heard they were at a shelter, hoping to reunite with the children's father, who was deported to Nuevo Laredo in the days before Parra Vargas' deportation. The couple is originally from Mexico. The deportation of Parra Vargas and her children appears to be the latest instance of the Trump administration removing U.S. citizen minors amid its ongoing immigrant crackdown. Last month in Louisiana, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement removed a four-year-old with Stage 4 cancer after stopping the child, its mother and others. In South Texas, immigration officials also removed four U.S. citizens, aged 6 to 15, along with their parents. One of the children had brain cancer while another had a heart disorder. 'They basically tell the family: 'Either take them with you or we're going to separate them quickly from you,'' said Hatoum, whose organization is representing the South Texas family. 'They then claim that's not really a deportation because they were given the option of going. But it certainly is in a colloquial sense.' U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment about this case. Parra Vargas' arrest came days after immigration officials questioned her and her partner at a traffic stop near Dobie Middle School in North Austin's Rundberg neighborhood on Thursday, according to Grassroots Leadership spokesperson Maria Reza. During that encounter with law enforcement, Parra Vargas' partner, Omar Gallardo Rodriguez, was arrested and deported back to the couple's native Mexico within days, while Parra Vargas was given an ankle monitor, Reza said. Hatoum said he believes Parra Vargas went to the Pflugerville facility in part because she believed it would help her partner's case. 'There is some level of gamesmanship to this,' Hatoum said. It's unclear if Parra Vargas or her partner had a deportation order, or if they either had any criminal history or previous record under immigration detainment. According to Reza, Parra Vargas had a pending asylum case. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: ICE deports Austin woman to Mexico alongside her U.S. citizen children
