Everything was fine, until suddenly it wasn’t.
On the morning of July 19, 2018, Tania Silva was wandering through East Austin, acting oddly. Silva, a 21-year-old community college student diagnosed with schizophrenia, was off her medication. At one point, she reportedly tried to enter some parked cars in a confused attempt to get a ride home. A homeowner in Austin’s Pecan Springs neighborhood saw Silva and invited her into her house. Though delirious, Silva calmed down, and the two talked for nearly an hour; the homeowner placed a 911 call asking for EMS. Instead, three Austin Police Department (APD) officers arrived, and within 20 minutes—bodycam video obtained by the Observer shows—Silva was handcuffed on the ground, screaming, and facing a felony assault charge.
The arrest sparked headlines last year, largely because Silva was undocumented. Once police took her to jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed a detainer on her, meaning if she posted bond she’d be transferred to an immigrant detention facility and perhaps be deported to Mexico away from her family in Austin. Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez wanted to reject the ICE detainer, but thanks to a provision in 2017’s controversial Senate Bill 4, doing so would have been illegal. For three weeks, Silva languished in county jail, her mental health deteriorating dramatically—until ICE, under pressure from activist groups and Congressman Lloyd Doggett, dropped its detainer, allowing her to bond out without fear of deportation. Silva’s sister, Pamela, told the Observer that after the incident, Silva spent about four months in hospitals, and it took a year for her to recover from the trauma of her experience.
