ICE in Texas: Officers shoot man

dpa | Officers from the controversial US immigration agency ICE shot and killed a man in the Texas city of Austin. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but his life was not in danger, said Mayor Kirk Watson.

“I am very angry about this,” he told reporters. Many details of the incident are still unclear. But Watson emphasized that it was unacceptable for officers from an agency that purports to maintain law and order to shoot people on the street.

A shot hit the man in the upper body area on Sunday, police said. It was initially unclear whether the bullet hit him from the front in the chest or from behind in the back. Photos from the crime scene suggest the man was in his car when the shots were fired.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said on Platform X that the man who was shot was now in federal custody before being deported. It was said that he was staying in the country illegally. The incident is now being investigated.

Mayor Watson and Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis demanded that local police be involved in the investigation of the incident. An investigation by the federal agency ICE alone is prohibited for reasons of transparency, said Watson, a Democrat. ICE activity against migrants in his city has increased sharply this month.

At the scene of the incident there were spontaneous small protests against the actions of the federal authorities. MP Greg Casar, whose constituency is Austin, called for a “full, independent investigation” and immediate release of the videos from the body cameras of the emergency services involved. The ICE officer responsible must be held accountable. “ICE repeatedly shot people and then lied about what happened,” criticized the Democrat. “Horror has come to our city.”

Since taking office a year and a half ago, US President Donald Trump has taken a very tough course against migrants who have a criminal record or do not have a valid residence permit. The Republican calls for mass deportations and relies primarily on the increasingly controversial federal agency ICE, whose officers carry out raids and arrests.

The sometimes brutal operations of the authority, which Trump has massively strengthened, are met with a lot of criticism in the USA - this was the case at the beginning of the year, among other things, after the fatal shots at two Americans in the state of Minnesota. The hardliner Gregory Bovino, who was responsible for the operations, then had to leave. Since then, the officials have taken a somewhat less martial approach - but the operations continue throughout the country.