AUSTIN, Texas — An update to the Austin Police Department’s (APD) procedures outlines that officers are not required to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when a person is found to have an ICE administrative warrant if they have no other arrestable charge.  

The update follows a controversial deportation from January, when a woman’s disturbance call to APD led to her detainment, alongside her 5-year-old child, who is a U.S. citizen.  

The incident led to questions from the community regarding the way APD is supposed to interact with ICE.  

In a March 4 memo, APD Police Chief Lisa Davis said that the directives provided by ICE administrative warrants could be confusing in their wording.

According to Davis, officers have not historically regularly encountered administrative warrants while using the National Crime Information Center database, which is used to conduct identity checks. However, in 2025, federal agencies began entering a large volume of administrative warrants into the system.

According to the memo, administrative warrants are formatted in a way that looks similar to criminal warrants in the system.

The APD General Orders have been updated to clearly define the difference between criminal warrants and ICE administrative warrants, as well as specific instructions for how ICE administrative warrants should be handled moving forward.

“APD recognizes the sensitivity of this issue, not only within our city but across the nation. These policies were updated to provide clarity to our officers, ensure compliance with state law, and maintain officer discretion guided by supervisory oversight and operational consideration,” Davis said in the memo.

The updated procedures instruct officers to contact their supervisor when a person is found to have only an ICE administrative warrant, but no other arrestable criminal charge. From there, the officer or their supervisor may contact ICE, but is not required to.

“Austin Police and City of Austin leadership share a paramount goal for Austin to be a safe city for everyone who lives, works, or visits here,” Davis said in the memo. “We particularly want to ensure that anyone who witnesses or is the victim of a crime feels secure in contacting the police for help.”

According to the memo, the entire APD staff will be required to complete new training regarding these updates.  

“In concert with the policy updates, APD is launching a public webpage to help people understand their rights and provide links to resources available from the City of Austin and community organizations, such as Know Your Rights training,” Davis said in the memo. “The webpage will also include information on the option of using APD Victim Services as an alternative to calling 9-1-1, when appropriate, and links to all general orders and policies related to immigration.”

Austin had a particularly itchy and drippy cedar fever season to start the year. Many winter days, from late December into February, had high or very high ashe juniper (aka cedar) pollen counts. 

Central Texas has a year-round allergy season with mold popping up at any time. For the more traditional spring and fall allergy seasons, forecasters at AccuWeather are predicting some of the allergens across the country will be worse this year than average. 

Texas, though, is a different story.

For grass allergies, which happen now through September, AccuWeather estimates Austin will have an average season. However, just west of the Interstate 35 corridor in the Hill Country to almost El Paso, that season is expected to be worse than normal. 

“Texas may experience above-average grass pollen for a few weeks,” AccuWeather’s allergy report said, “though the season could be shorter-lived compared to northern areas.”