The city’s Community Police Oversight Board is set to debate what to do about a short response it received on immigration from the DPD chief.
DALLAS — Congresswoman Julie Johnson (D-Dallas) sent a letter to Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux demanding specifics on the department’s interactions with federal immigration authorities, as frustration from members of the community and the city’s police oversight board mounts.
The Community Police Oversight Board was set to vote Tuesday on next steps after a response to a short response from Comeaux after the City Attorney’s office prevented him from answering specific questions on immigration at a contentious June meeting.
The number of public comment speakers at last Wednesday’s City Council meeting with questions about immigration led City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert to issue a memo stating the city is committed to following “all relevant laws and regulations regarding immigration.”
“Dallas’ strength is the rich tapestry of our communities,” Tolbert wrote. “DPD will continue to enforce city and state laws while upholding the constitutional rights of residents. The federal government is primarily responsible for enforcing immigration laws.”
Comeaux has previously said that the department’s policy has not changed and DPD will assist legal requests from federal partners, including ICE.
“As always, we’re going to co-operate. We’re going to assist our federal partners when needed. And when asked to do anything legally, we’ll be there to support them,” he said in an interview with WFAA in July.
But those responses have not been satisfactory to members of the oversight board, including Brandon Friedman.
“The responses have been very vague; they appear to have just been written by the city attorney’s office,” he said. “Are they providing intelligence, are they providing information to ICE. What are they going out on raids? Are they providing security?”
He described the experience of trying to get answers from the department as “frustrating.”
“A lot of people in our community are very uncomfortable, and I don’t think we’re going to let this stand. We can’t go on like this,” he said.
But other community groups said they have confidence in the department and the chief.
“I have personally not heard any complaints about people that have been arrested, detained, profiled, in the city of Dallas,” said LULAC Dallas Chapter President Rene Martinez. “People are not afraid of DPD, they’re afraid of what’s going on in our country.”
He said he feels the department has handled immigration well and said the chief has answered questions “diplomatically” but to his satisfaction.
“I think the procedures, the process, the relationship has been the same over the past 10 to 15 years,” he said.