We, undersigned, call on the City of Leander to protect Leander residents from the violence of ICE and DHS by immediately prohibiting the Leander Police Department from supporting any attempt by ICE or DPS to question, detain, and deport Leander residents and visitors.

We condemn cooperation with federal law enforcement agencies who verifiably and repeatedly violate people’s constitutional rights, operate outside of their jurisdiction, and ignore due process.

We call on Leander City Council, Mayor Na’Cole Thompson, and City Manager Todd Parton to immediately pass a city ordinance that prevents any LPD employee from helping immigration agents serving administrative warrants to Leander residents, including but not limited to:

Running a warrant check for ICE/DHS administrative warrants
Serving ICE/DHS administrative warrants
Detaining people on behalf of ICE/DHS
Handing people over to ICE/DHS who are in LPD custody
Alerting these ICE/DHS to the location of Leander residents and visitors

LPD in any way facilitating the detainment of Leander residents by any federal immigration department significantly impacts safety in our community by making it less likely that immigrants, undocumented people, people of color, and anyone associated with the anti-ICE movement will report crimes or cooperate with local law enforcement.

Immigration agents are increasing their violence and harassment of American residents, including undocumented immigrants, immigrants on valid visas, protestors, journalists, first responders, doctors, lawyers, bystanders, and legal observers. They have released chemical weapons into vehicles and on school property. They flagrantly and repeatedly violate their own use of force guidelines, act outside of their jurisdiction, and ignore due process altogether.

These agents and their lawlessness pose a significant bodily threat to the safety of every Leander resident, and we demand that the City of Leander act with expediency to prevent further detainment and deportations due to the actions of city employees.