Austin High School students protest arrest of immigrant student booked into jail for assault

Austin High School students protest the ICE detention of Dennis Rivera, a student from their school on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Houston. Austin High School students protest the ICE detention of Dennis Rivera, a student from their school on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018, in Houston. Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle Photo: Elizabeth Conley, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Austin High School students protest arrest of immigrant student booked into jail for assault 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

More than 300 Stephen F. Austin High School students walked out during their lunch break Wednesday to protest the arrest of a Honduran teen who landed in immigrant detention after a fight at school.

The idea that federal agents are entering schools and picking up immigrant students spurred widespread alarm, and tens of thousands of people, including Hollywood actress Alyssa Milano, appealed to federal officials on Twitter that they free Dennis Rivera, noting students "should be in school not in detention."

The hysteria over Rivera's arrest, following charges of misdemeanor assault, tapped into the deep anxiety President Donald Trump's administration has stirred among immigrants here illegally and their family and friends.

READ ALSO: Immigration agents arrest Houston father of five on his way to work

Andrea Gonzalez, a 15-year-old sophomore who helped organize the protest, said the incident has made some students at this predominantly Hispanic school in southeast Houston fearful of going to class.

"We don't want anything like this to happen to anyone else," Gonzalez said. "Today it could be Dennis, tomorrow it could be us."

But the facts of the case, as relayed by authorities, suggest a more nuanced scenario from what some activists initially sought to portray. Rivera, a 19-year-old senior, was arrested by police after pushing a girl, then striking her in the head with his fists, according to court documents. District officials never contacted immigration agents.

Once Rivera was booked into jail, his fingerprints were run through federal databases just like any other inmate would be under a national program called Secure Communities. After it was discovered that he was illegally here, immigration officials requested the sheriff's office hold him until they could pick him up, rather than release him on the bond he had paid.

Though the sheriff's office last year ended a program called 287 (g) that allowed deputies to ask about immigration status, it still honors requests from federal agents to hold immigrant suspects, meaning it is not a so-called sanctuary jurisdiction like many in California and New York.

RELATED: Immigration screening still used in Texas as other agencies withdraw

What is Secure Communities?

Immigrant advocates and students do not dispute that Rivera is here illegally, nor that he got into a fight, but say district officials should have handled the incident without pursuing criminal charges, given the grave consequence of deportation he would face after landing in jail.

"As long as HISD employs police officers with the authority to refer people to the criminal justice system, HISD will be a part of the school-to-deportation pipeline," said Jay Jenkins, a Harris County Project Attorney with the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, a nonprofit focused on improving the justice system.

Advocates say the female student, whom Rivera did not know, harassed him repeatedly, calling him an ethnic slur for immigrants. She threw a bottle of Gatorade at him.

District spokesman Tracy Clemons said in a statement that a school police officer on Jan. 30 responded to the reported assault of a female student across the street from Stephen F. Austin High School.

Witnesses said the girl and Rivera argued, escalating into a fight. The girl told the officer that he pushed her to the ground, then hit her twice in the back of the head, according to court records. She was taken to the hospital and released, though it's unclear what injuries she suffered.

School police contacted the Harris County District Attorney's Office, which accepted misdemeanor charges of assault with bodily injury against Rivera. He was arrested and transferred to the Harris County Jail, where deputies ran his fingerprints, according to procedure, then held him on the request of immigration agents. They took custody of him that day.

Damaris Gonzales, an organizer with the immigrant youth group United We Dream, said the school should have handled Rivera's punishment in-house. District police are accountable to its Board of Education, which she said should update antiquated policies to lessen the use of law-enforcement actions for low-level offenses, given that being booked into jail essentially can guarantee deportation.

According to a 2010 "School Crime and Discipline Handbook" published by then-Attorney General Greg Abbott, principals should notify district police if "reasonable grounds" exist to believe certain serious crimes, such as aggravated assault or possession of marijuana, have been committed on school property. Misdemeanor assault, the crime with which Rivera was charged, is not an offense that must be reported.

An online petition posted on Rivera's behalf said he had been accepted to Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Lamar University, where he planned to study computer science, and that he faced danger back home in Honduras.

Leticia Zamarripa, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement that Border Patrol agents first encountered Rivera in March 2013 after he entered the country illegally. They issued him an expedited order of removal, meaning he would typically have been quickly deported without being allowed to make his case to an immigration judge.

He was ultimately released on an order of supervision, Zamarripa said, meaning he could temporarily stay here as long as he reported regularly to immigration officials. He last checked in with them in October 2013, and was supposed to leave the country by March 2014.

READ: Local immigrant facing deportation after checking in with authorities

Students at Wednesday's protest said they were shocked the teen they knew as shy had been in a fight. His teammates on the soccer team said they pray for him after every practice.

One, Jose Ayala, said the incident hit particularly close to home. He came here illegally as a child,

and is currently protected from deportation under an Obama-era program known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Trump rescinded the initiative last fall, asking Congress to come up with a permanent solution by March or about 700,000 young immigrants like Ayala could face deportation. Polls show most Americans support the idea of allowing such youth to stay, but lawmakers have been at an impasse on the issue for months. The Senate is debating it this week.

READ: Dreamer immigrants caught in middle of debate over reform

"This could be my situation," Ayala said. "We understand mistakes can drag us down, but we learn from them, get back up and move on stronger. It's time for him to come back and finish his senior year strong."

RELATED: Trump's immigrant crackdown brings 'blanket of fear' to Houston schools

The 17-year-old said in December he saw the district's superintendent, Richard Carranza, speak at a "Dream Summit," a day of college exploration for students born outside the United States.

Carranza, a native Spanish-speaker who learned English as a second language, pledged support, promising to create an environment "where you don't have to worry about getting deported."

Ayala now wonders where that sentiment has gone.

"He said ICE wouldn't come into schools," Ayala said. "Well, this happened at a school."