The Week’s Biggest News in Brief: Sept. 17-23

ICE Shooting in Austin: On Sunday, Sept. 20, 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez was shot by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in North Austin near Anderson Square and Highway 183. According to his attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, the man was completing a DoorDash order when he encountered the ICE agents. Law enforcement fired shots through the back of Garces Perez’s car, striking him in the upper back, near his neck. Since the Sunday afternoon shooting, local leaders and officials have come forward, calling on the Austin Police Department to independently investigate the incident. Protests were held on both Sunday and Monday nights. APD deployed tear gas and pepper spray against protesters at Sunday’s demonstration near the site of the shooting. Monday’s protest near the Capitol remained peaceful, as a few hundred individuals gathered to call for local leaders to take action and for ICE to leave the city. On Tuesday, Sept. 22, a federal judge temporarily blocked Garces Perez’s deportation, ordering that he be physically present for a first hearing scheduled for Sept. 30, according to his attorney. Later Tuesday, city officials held a press conference where additional footage provided by APD was revealed. One video showed an off-duty APD officer driving by ICE agents conducting a traffic stop on Garces Perez 14 minutes prior to the shooting, while another shows a different APD officer in the moments following the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security has since disputed multiple claims made by the victim, his attorney, and local leaders, stating that ICE “will not be slowing down operations in Austin.” Read more in Sammie Seamon’s report.

Environmentalists File Suit Over Dog’s Head: The Save Our Springs Alliance and People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, along with a few aggravated neighbors, filed a lawsuit against Austin and City Council on Monday, Sept. 22, over the Dog’s Head agreement that was first proposed back in May. The lawsuit challenges Council’s approval of a Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone for the development, which would ultimately hand over more than a billion dollars in future property and sales tax collected in the area to Endeavor Real Estate Group to reimburse the company for constructing roads, utility lines, and other infrastructure. The suit also challenges the agreement as a deal that “unconstitutionally delegates Austin’s legislative authority.” The 2,600-acre project remains ongoing as the environmentalists hope the lawsuit results in their concerns being addressed. Read more in Brant Bingamon’s report.

Austin Chronicle OpenAI lawsuit Credit: Zeke Barbaro

Chronicle Joins Lawsuit Against OpenAI: Last week, the Chronicle joined over two dozen news publishers throughout the country in a copyright lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, bringing the total plaintiffs in the suit to over 550 local, regional, and specialty outlets. The suit, filed in New York, alleges that the defendants systematically and willfully stole copyrighted articles to train and build AI products and reproduce or repurpose those stories without permission or compensation. The suit argues that OpenAI intentionally removed copyright management information from the content, such as author bylines, copyright notices, and terms of use information.

Air Conditioning in Texas Prisons: In a landmark ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman ordered the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Sept. 22 to install air conditioning in every prison in the state. The ruling could provide relief for an estimated nearly 90,000 people who suffer through heat indexes as high as 130 degrees during the brutal Texas summers, temperatures that have regularly caused heat stroke and even death. Pitman is giving the state until December 2029 to install the air conditioning and will require the TDCJ to submit status reports on the installation every six months. Amite Dominick of Texas Prisons Community Advocates, one of the plaintiffs that filed the lawsuit against TDCJ three years ago, said Pitman’s decision validated what advocates have long said – that un-air-conditioned cells kill prisoners. “This is the day the state ran out of excuses,” Dominick told the Chronicle. “The court set the deadline, and the court said cost is no defense. Our job now is to make sure that the plan is real, that the legislature funds it, and that not one person dies waiting.” 

Credit: John Anderson

DPS Voter Registration SNAFU: According to the Tribune, Texas election officials recently found that an unknown number of voter registration applications have yet to be processed thanks to the Texas Department of Public Safety. County officials claim that the department did not send the applications to county voter registrars after they were submitted by voters through the state’s online driver’s license portal. This led to incomplete voter registration records, though, as of Tuesday, Sept. 22, officials have not yet said what information was absent, what caused the issue, how many voters were impacted, and other details. The Texas Association of County Election Officials is currently working on gathering information to determine the extent of the problem.

They Want Your Vote, But Won’t Debate: With less than six weeks until November’s midterm elections, the state’s top GOP politicians – Gov. Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick – still have yet to accept debate invitations against any of their three competitors, state Reps. Gina Hinojosa, James Talarico, and Vikki Goodwin, respectively. Despite early commitment to work with Dallas’ WFAA to organize a debate, Paxton’s campaign hasn’t responded to the news outlet since late August, indicating that a debate between him and Talarico on the platform is unlikely. In the lieutenant governor race, Goodwin said on Tuesday, Sept. 22, that Patrick had yet to accept a debate invitation against her on Spectrum News. While Abbott’s campaign has not officially declined any invitations to debate Hinojosa, he has remained silent, suggesting that a debate is unlikely.

UT Tower at UT-Austin Credit: Getty Images

UT Cuts Majors: Earlier this year, UT-Austin made the decision to consolidate several race, ethnic, and gender studies departments earlier this year, despite pushback from advocates who argue the consolidations harm student education. This is now the first school year where UT and other institutions within the University of Texas System have the power to no longer offer certain academic majors as a result of Senate Bill 37, which allows campus presidents the ability to cut programs for cost purposes, student demand, or whether the course aligns with the university’s principles. Professors do not have the ability to appeal the decision. Students at UT will no longer be able to major in studies centered on Africans and the African diaspora, Mexican Americans and Latinos, or women and gender. Professors now must propose new majors by the end of the semester, though students already committed to majoring in those fields will still have the ability to earn their degrees.

VOCAL-TX Educates on Billionaires: VOCAL-TX held its latest Billionaire Backers of Hate town hall last Wednesday, Sept. 16, drawing close to 100 attendees who learned about the tech oligarchs living among us and their work to enact the Trump agenda – destroying public education, deporting undocumented people, dehumanizing homeless people, and installing a surveillance state. Representatives from City Council, Education Austin, National Nurses United, and Grassroots Leadership spoke, highlighting research conducted by watchdog group LittleSis on the billionaires now living in Austin and how their very far-right views are being normalized – for example, Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale is speaking at the Reuters AI summit underway this week despite his call for a return to public hangings. They also discussed billionaires’ support for local conservative groups like Save Austin Now and its latest project to audit the city, Proposition I. 

Credit: Getty Images

City May Rethink 911 Call Center: When City Council adopted the FY 26-27 budget in August, the dais allocated $1.4 million to create an Office of Joint Emergency Communications, which would centralize the city’s 911 call-taking service, ultimately aimed at becoming independent from the Austin Police Department. Now, Mission Critical Partners, a city-hired consultant, has recommended that call-takers remain within APD under new leadership, according to Statesman reporting. The consultant firm’s report states that creating an independent department would result in new management boundaries between civilian call-takers and police dispatchers, causing delays in deploying police resources. The report also says the initiative would cost over $11 million, with a few hundred thousand dollars in startup expenses, and outlined how the city could accomplish some of its intended goals by spending just about $800,000. 

City Staff Recommendations on Nonprofit Cuts: At Sept. 22’s Council work session, city staff recommended that the city make no funding cuts to 133 nonprofits as part of the FY 26-27 budget, which was adopted in August. After weighing the option of cutting about $16.8 million from social services during the early budget process, Council was met with public pushback, driving them to ultimately restore $4.7 million for the services. Those funds have since been withheld until staff reviewed each nonprofit’s performance. In July, an internal audit showed that many nonprofits failed to meet performance expectations. Council is scheduled to vote on multiple contracts at its regular meeting today.

Travis County Jail In-Custody Death: The Travis County Sheriff’s Office announced on Thursday, Sept. 17, that 43-year-old inmate Christopher Ramon was found unresponsive in his cell on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Travis County Jail staff attempted to aid Ramon before first responders arrived, but he was pronounced deceased shortly after he was found, after he was booked on Tuesday, Sept. 15, for violating parole. The TCSO Internal Affairs Unit, Criminal Investigations Division, the Texas Rangers, and the Travis County Medical Examiner’s Office are now conducting an investigation. This marks the third in-custody death at Travis County Jail this year.

Credit: Getty Images

Waymo Hits Austin Highways: Waymo is expanding ride service throughout the city, now traversing local highways as its autonomous vehicles deliver customers to and from locations around town. Following months of testing, the company’s vehicles first began riding on highways on Tuesday, Sept. 22. Waymo is also working with the city and Waze, a GPS navigation app, to spot potential potholes and other road hazards and report those findings back to the city.

Goodwin Police Report Against Patrick: As the midterm races continue to heat up, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic nominee for the state’s lieutenant governor position, has filed a police report against her opponent, incumbent Dan Patrick, claiming that Patrick’s campaign released artificial intelligence-created advertisements that violate state law. Goodwin has said that ads posted to Patrick’s X account use deepfake images of her and misrepresent her opinions. The posts have since been deleted from the lieutenant governor’s social media page.

Camp Mystic Manslaughter Investigation: Camp Mystic, the girls’ summer camp where over two dozen people died during last year’s July floods, is currently under investigation by the Texas Rangers, according to KUT. Last week, 14 search warrants were executed against staff members and family members that run the camp. According to an affidavit obtained by KUT, law enforcement has probable cause to believe the camp’s officials committed criminal acts that include manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, injury to a child, abandoning or endangering a child, and deadly conduct.

Renaming Southeast Metropolitan Park: The Travis County Commissioners Court is now accepting recommendations to rename Southeast Metropolitan Park near Del Valle. The nearly 300-acre park has fields for baseball, soccer, and softball, an all-ability playground, hiking trails, a natural pond with a fishing pier, and climbing area. Those interested in potentially helping rename the park must email their recommendations to [email protected] by Monday, Sept. 28.

Fair Chance Hiring Job and Resource Fair: Looking for a job? The city is trying to help, as it hosts the 2026 Fair Chance Hiring Job and Resource Fair on Wednesday, Sept. 30. Local businesses and external organizations have been invited to join job seekers at the event, specifically aimed at assisting residents who have experienced inequitable access to employment. The city welcomes veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those over the age of 50 looking to be connected with employers, with opportunities for on-site interviews and potential same-day contingent job offers.

Old San Antonio and Puryear Closes: The intersection of Old San Antonio Road and Puryear Road in Southern Travis County closed on Monday, Sept. 21, as crews work to add a new westbound-to-northbound right-turn lane and widen the intersection on the southwest side. The improvements are expected to enhance safety and reduce traffic. The intersection is expected to remain shut down for up to 180 days, or until work has been completed.

Community to Discuss Large Water Users: Austin Water is inviting community members to join the city department at an open house on Monday, Oct. 5, to discuss policy concepts for large water users in the area. The department’s current policies already require developers to foot the bill and labor for constructing infrastructure needed to be serviced, among other things. Now, Austin Water hopes to implement more requirements “to support long-term planning and help high impact water customers use water responsibly.” The public will provide feedback to the department, helping influence policies before they go in front of City Council.

Credit: Jana Birchum QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Instead of focusing its work on those who may pose a danger to our neighbors, ICE is eager to fulfill a deportation quota by rounding up any immigrant that it can find, including those who are making a real contribution to our community.”

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett on Sunday’s ICE shooting

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