Aurora Martinez Jones says that if it hadn’t all happened on the same day, she might never have made the connection.
At the time, Martinez Jones was the associate judge assisting with Travis County’s child welfare cases. She presided over a case in which a white mother had been arrested during a traffic stop for having drugs in her possession. Her child was in the vehicle with her; officers allowed the woman to call the grandmother to come take the child. In court, Child Protective Services (CPS), the state agency responsible for responding to the abuse and neglect of children, requested the judge order supervision for the mother, but the child would be able to continue living with the mother and grandmother.
The same day, a Black mother had been arrested during a traffic stop for having drugs in her possession. At the time of the arrest, her child was in the vehicle with her, but officers did not allow her to call for someone to care for her child. Instead, CPS was called, and the child was taken from the family by emergency removal and placed into foster care.
