AUSTIN, Texas — Travis County Attorney Delia Garza addressed the media Tuesday to confirm that 79 people were arrested during Monday's pro-Palestinian protests on the University of Texas at Austin campus.
Garza said that 65 of those arrested were charged with criminal trespass, and she speculated that many of those people will be released from jail.
"Our office is working very hard to evaluate and process cases as they are received," Garza said. "There are many moving parts when someone is arrested, a lot of resources processing people arrested, and it takes time on a normal day – not to mention the volume we are seeing now."
Many of the protesters who were arrested at UT on April 24 were released less than 12 hours later and were not charged with any crime due to a perceived lack of probable cause by both defense attorneys and Garza's office. But Garza said that her office does not see the same probable cause deficiencies with these latest protest arrests.
Garza criticized the response to the protests by UT leadership and Gov. Greg Abbott, saying that cycling people in and out of jail for low-level misdemeanors like criminal trespassing takes resources away from both law enforcement and local courts.
"Continuing to send protesters to jail on criminal trespass charges – one of the lowest level, nonviolent crimes our office is presented with – is putting a tremendous strain on our criminal justice resources," Garza said, later adding, "It is not the role of the criminal justice system to jail people for conduct that has not yet occurred or that might occur, nor is it the role to assist our governor in efforts to suppress nonviolent and peaceful demonstrations."
Garza said that the cases her office has reviewed so far will remain active for now as the office continues to investigate what the most appropriate outcome is. However, even those whose cases remain active may still be released from jail if a magistrate judge approves their eligibility. Garza said on a low-level charge like criminal trespass, if someone has no previous criminal history, there is a high likelihood that they will be released on some kind of bond.
She could not confirm, however, when those currently in jail might be released – only that the process is taking longer than it normally would.
"If it was one person, two people on criminal trespass, they may have already bonded out by now," Garza said Tuesday afternoon. "But with the volume we're seeing, it's taking some time."
KVUE asked the Travis County Sheriff's Office about the impact the arrests are having on the jail. The agency told us the jail generally books about 80 people per day. When we asked if the 79 arrests on Monday overwhelmed the jail, the sheriff's office said this isn't the first time it has seen a large number of arrests all at once like this.