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There are no mass ICE roundups in Bexar County, according to Sheriff Javier Salazar who spoke Monday night during a town hall meeting hosted by the San Antonio Catholic Archdiocese.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller and Mayor Ron Nirenberg were also among the panelists to speak at the town hall meeting at San Fernando Hall.
The town hall was attended largely by members of the local Catholic clergy.
The panelists spoke in an effort to separate fact from rhetoric and to quell fears among the area's large migrant population.
The sheriff, for example, said there are no mass school-to-school or church-to-church style ICE raids locally.
Salzar said in talks with other major county sheriffs from across the country at two separate national conferences, he confirmed ICE is targeting specific individuals named in warrants.
"They're going to be going after a certain person," he said of ICE during the town hall. So, if that certain person with a warrant for their arrest works in a church or school, then yes, they may go into that church or school looking for that one person."
But Salazar said even the targeted arrests may ensnare others.
"Unfortunately, what I didn't like necessarily hearing, is that anybody that may be next to that person at the time of arrest or contact may be subject to seizure and possibly deportation if they happen to be undocumented and are committing no other violations of the law," he said.
The sheriff also said DACA students, those attending college under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, are also not the subject of mass roundups.
"Those protected by DACA are not a priority as far as removal," Salazar said. "They are not looking to remove those protections and they're not looking to make targets of those folks, obviously unless they have a warrant for their arrest for something else."
Gloria Urrabazo, vice president of Mission and Ministry at Our Lady of the Lake University and also among the panelists, said the actions by ICE have still had a chilling effect on college campuses.
"I'm hearing that there is a climate of fear," she said. "There's a climate of dehumanization. That there's a climate of stripping away one's own identity, which in the past has been an identity filled with pride but has now been replaced by fear."
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the actions by ICE under the Trump administration were carried on by previous administrations and have not changed. But he said comments from major politicians about the ICE arrests have changed.
"What is happening that is different is the rhetoric, is the attention, is the showmanship of some of these things from politicians," he said. "And it is designed to do exactly what we're hearing, which is it's instilling a lot of fear."
Nirenberg said between December and January people did not all of sudden lose their constitutional rights to due process.
"There are resources out there, and we want to make sure you that have those resources. Know your rights, and you can live without fear in our community," the mayor said.
Sheriff Salazar said anyone undocumented who is the subject of a crime should not fear reporting it. He said his department and the San Antonio Police Department do not engage in racial profiling or make arrests based on immigration status in the absence of another crime being committed.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller said as far as the Catholic Church and other charities are concerned, including Catholic Charities, their work will continue to assist migrants just like the hundreds of thousands that have passed through here in the past.
"We are not going to stop doing good, and for anyone, anytime and anywhere," he said.
Mayor Nirenberg said all of the migrants helped in the past by city efforts were here at the behest of the federal government to receive such help.
