Nearly 100 protesters gathered Tuesday outside the federal courthouse in Waco, which also houses the local U.S. Immigration and Criminal Enforcement (ICE) Fugitive Operations office.
Mark Hays, chairman of the McLennan County Democratic Party, helped organize the protest. He said at the heart of the demonstration is a basic belief in fairness.
“I was raised to believe that if you were in America, breathing in America, you had a right to due process,” Hays said.
That right, he argued, was denied to Noe Guerrero, a Mexican national and Waco construction worker.
According to a video posted to Facebook by his employer, Guerrero was stopped by plainclothes ICE agents. When he did not immediately produce his immigration papers, which were inside his vehicle, one of the agents broke his window.
Guerrero was detained, charged with failing to carry proper immigration documentation, and turned over to U.S. Marshals. His court hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday, but Hays said the charges were dropped — even as Guerrero was transferred to a detention center.
“They dropped the charges he was originally arrested on, and yet they’re still sending him to Conroe,” Hays said.
Guerrero’s attorney said in a press release that he is now being transferred to an immigration detention center north of Houston.
She did not respond to a request for comment.
Hays said he’s concerned about what that means for Guerrero’s future.
“Presumably, when you go to one of those ICE detention centers, that is a preliminary to deportation,” he said.
Under federal law, even if criminal charges are dropped, civil immigration enforcement can still result in detention. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can hold individuals it believes are in violation of immigration laws, regardless of whether they’ve been convicted of a crime.
Huyen Pham, a professor of immigration and criminal law at Texas A&M University School of Law, said Guerrero’s transfer likely signals the start of deportation proceedings.
“Hopefully, that means he will be able to present his evidence in front of an immigration judge," she said. " [But], the fact that they’ve moved him to Conroe suggests that he has been placed in removal proceedings."
In an emailed statement, an ICE spokesperson said Guerrero is “an illegal alien who has a prior conviction for driving while intoxicated” and that he “violated the terms of his immigration bond by engaging in suspected criminal activity.”
But Guerrero’s attorney said ICE has not disclosed what that criminal activity is. She said since his 2014 DWI conviction, Guerrero has been granted temporary work authorization and has complied with all required immigration appointments.
Pham said many individuals like Guerrero were previously considered low-priority for deportation.
“They were not high priorities for deportation, and so they were allowed to be released and given work authorization,” Pham said.
Guerrero has been working in Waco for over a decade. He has a wife and young kids, and just purchased a home in the area.
While ICE says it focuses on individuals who pose threats to public safety, advocates argue enforcement has broadened to include people with clean records and strong community ties.
“I do think that people who follow the rules or what they’ve been asked to do are easy targets for enforcement," Pham said.
Pham said temporary work authorizations can be revoked at any time, and she worries Guerrero’s case reflects a larger shift.
“I think what we’re seeing across the country is what mass deportation looks like on a local level,” she said.
Hays agrees and said the potential consequences for Waco could be serious.
“The lower-end estimate of the undocumented immigrant population in McLennan County is around 15,000,” he said. “And the vast majority are younger, working people who are part of our economy.”
He said losing those workers could ripple across industries, schools and neighborhoods.
As for Guerrero, supporters said they plan to keep pressing for answers.
