Eleven individuals were arrested in Erath County Saturday, July 11 for immigration related issues during an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) operation.
All three local law enforcement entities including Dublin PD, Stephenville PD and Erath County Sheriff’s Office participated in the county-wide enforcement operation.
On the same day, a video appeared online featuring two Dublin PD officers getting beverages at Big’s convenience store where a newly hired officer stated “I can grab you some ice if you want,” during the course of an interaction.
Though Dublin Police Chief Cameron Ray said the video being shared does not capture the entirety of the encounter, he says the officer’s comment is completely uncalled for.
An individual, who filmed the video and declined to talk on the record to The Citizen, said from his point of view the officers were not interested in talking to him and he told them not to use his property entrances for anything that had to do with their ICE operations.
On the video an interaction can be heard with a male officer stating “I can grab you some ice if you want,” to which the filmer said, “Excuse me? Oh, you think it’s funny?”
The female officer states twice that they are not with ICE and that they had already told him that.
The man filming then states the video will go viral and asks the officer if he had any more jokes. The officer responded with, “No, I thought that was good enough,” and then the video ended.
“As with any incident involving our officers, we are committed to conducting a thorough internal review to ensure our actions align with department policies, professional standards, and the law,” he said. “The officer’s comment was uncalled for. It’s not being taken lightly and there will be consequences.”
The entire department will take 20 additional hours of cultural diversity training.
“It’s a good refresher course,” Ray said.
Ray addressed the ICE enforcement operation in Dublin as widespread traffic enforcement.
“We have to work with them,” Ray said about ICE. “We don’t have a choice. It’s been handed down by the Governor’s office. However, we are able to determine how we work with them.”
In the case of Saturday’s operation, Ray’s directive to his officers was to pull over people for traffic violations, regardless of ethnicity of the drivers.
If during the course of the traffic stop, immigration status was called into question and the person had major criminal offenses in their background then ICE was to be called. 25 traffic stops were completed in Dublin.
Out of the 11 arrests in the county, three were in Dublin, and all had prior criminal offenses. None were citizens of Dublin.
“We are not targeting them,” Ray said about Hispanic citizens in Dublin. “We have to live in this community and they are the heartbeat here.”
The chief also stated it’s important for him to get across that victims of a crime will never even be asked about their immigration status.
“A crime victim is a crime victim. We will not ask them their immigration status,” Ray said.
Detective Nanci Wilson also emphasized that if anyone was attempting to use someone’s immigration status against them during the course of a crime, it would be dealt with swiftly.
Another scene called into question was in Stephenville where ICE was filmed outside Carniceria Cara Blanca Meat Market located on Washington Street.
According to Stephenville Police Chief Dan Harris, there was a minor crash in front of the meat market and ICE came to the scene after discovering one of the drivers was Venezuelan.
After ICE arrived on scene, the meat market shut and locked its doors, Harris said.
“We absolutely do not do workplace enforcement,” he said.
Erath County Sheriff’s Office also issued the following statement to The Dublin Citizen: “The Erath County Sheriff’s Office participates in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program as legislatively mandated by Texas Senate Bill 8. As a mandated participant in the 287(g) program, we assisted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) in their local operation on July 11th, 2026.”
Ray emphasized the public was always welcome to come talk to him about any enforcement questions or concerns.
On Sunday, July 12 more than 30 people attended a protest at The Corner Lot to express concern about PD related immigration issues.
“We aren’t against ICE, we are against our local police department working with them,” Blanca Renteria, who attended the protest, said.
“I need the Hispanic community to understand we are not targeting them,” Ray said. “Immigration needs to change. It needs to be easier, cheaper and quicker to get citizenship in this country.”