On ICE
This was inevitable. We are one of the largest cities in the USA. We have a huge immigrant population. I will say it again. This is what folks voted for last year. Those of us who get the hard copy of the Chron delivered saw the front-page headline on Monday about the City of H-Town and ICE. See the featured photo.A lot of folks were outraged. I get it. ICE was discussed at yesterday’s H-Town City Council meeting and here is the Chron’s coverage of the meeting:
Mayor John Whitmire on Wednesday defended the Houston Police Department’s work and denounced “inflamed rhetoric” on social media from politicians protesting the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Saturday, Whitmire spoke at a conference with Bill King of Rice University’s Baker Institute of Public Policy about how the city is cooperating with ICE after denying and giving vague answers about the extent to which police were involved with the agency for months.
“I’m not going to say that we’re not cooperating with ICE, because that’s frankly not true,” Whitmire said.
Following Whitmire’s statement, Council Member Mario Castillo and council candidate Alejandra Salinas took to social media to denounce the cooperation and call for more transparency.
Castillo, in addition to calling for a public explanation of the extent of the city’s involvement with ICE, said he was going to pause his office’s requests to fund overtime for HPD officers until he knew the dollars were not going toward cooperating with ICE.
“Reports that HPD has been coordinating with ICE contradicts months of public statements to the contrary,” Castillo posted on X.
Salinas also posted on X, saying the cooperation and lack of information was “wrong” and said one of her relatives was wrongly detained by the federal agency.
“I am profoundly disappointed in the lack of transparency by the administration,” Salinas wrote. “Our city should not enable wrongful actors.”
Whitmire during Wednesday’s City Council meeting said the outcry is “alarming people unnecessarily” and “politicizing a very emotional issue.”
“We didn’t ask for this challenge. We can strongly agree with the actions of the federal government, but we’re here to follow the law,” Whitmire said, adding that “when there’s a warrant for someone’s arrest, we have no choice but to submit them to the agency that has the warrant” like other agencies have been doing across the region.
The mayor said when he does stings at clubs with the police chief across the city, groups of 50 to 100 people are only checked for drugs and firearms and sent home without being asked about their immigration status. He added HPD officers don’t ask about immigration status when they’re pulled over for traffic violations.
Doug Griffith, the police union president, told council members his officers search for immigration violations, especially with the department’s current shortage of 1,500 officers. He added that the standard procedure for officers was checking for outstanding warrants and referring the individual to the agency that issued it, whether it was ICE or the FBI.
“Outside of that, we’re not working with ICE. We don’t care about ICE,” Griffith said. “They have their own job function.”
Whitmire called for elected officials to “lower the rhetoric.”
“What’s the incentive to bad mouth HPD with such a sensitive issue, or even me?” Whitmire said. “It’s not harming HPD. They’re doing great … The public opinion (of the department) is high. It’s not harming me. I’m doing fine. You’re harming the community that we’re all committed to serve and comfort.”
Whitmire called social media or “click bait” criticizing HPD incorrect.
“We are a city of immigrants. We know that it’s our strength,” Whitmire said. “And I would urge everybody, anybody who can hear my voice, don’t politicize this … We are the Houston Police Department. We enforce state and city laws, not immigration, not ICE.”
Castillo on Wednesday said his social media post called for increased transparency, arguing he was trying to reassure people who have fears about immigration enforcement.
“When we have reassured folks this isn’t happening, this isn’t what’s going on – that’s one thing,” Castillo said. “And then the comment over the weekend … it raised a lot of questions. It brought anxiety up, and that, to me, was something that jeopardized the public’s trust with our local law enforcement.”
During his time as mayor, Whitmire prided himself on his approach to running Houston by keeping his head low in an attempt to stay away from the “turmoil” unfolding in other large cities.
Where some got a verbal lashing Wednesday, Whitmire praised Council Member Joaquin Martinez for the approach he took by posting a message of support to the city’s immigrant community.
“While some might try to inflame distrust between our immigrant families and local government, we must stand together, to support one another, and to make sure every Houstonian feels safe calling for help, going to work and sending their children to school,” Martinez wrote. “Immigration enforcement may be a federal issue, but building trust, safety and inclusion is local work — and that’s where my focus remains.”
Martinez stayed on his course Wednesday and said he was appreciative to be a part of the effort to be intentional with words. He added the issue was among the hardest he’s had to deal with as a council member.
“What ICE is doing is disgusting, and I think everybody can agree to that,” Martinez said. “But at what point do we, especially in these positions, who have an opportunity to spek up a little bit louder, provide some peace and calm in this chaos, or do we continue to inflame these conversations?”
Here is from Houston Public Media:
Mayor John Whitmire defended the Houston Police Department’s coordination with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the city council meeting on Wednesday, responding to pushback from a council member that was prompted by a news story.
At a conference hosted by political pundit Bill King on Saturday, the Houston Chronicle first reported, Whitmire said, “I’m not going to say that we’re not cooperating with ICE because that’s frankly not true.”
The statements came after Whitmire for months downplayed HPD’s work with ICE after the Chronicle reported Houston police officers called ICE more than 100 times this year to alert the federal agency of encounters with people who had active immigration warrants, compared to nine times in 2024.
“We can strongly disagree with the actions of the federal government, but we’re here to follow the law,” Whitmire said Wednesday. “We’ve been very consistent from day one when I was sworn in — we’re going to follow state and city laws. … When there’s a warrant for someone’s arrest, we have no choice but to submit them to the agency that has the warrant.”
Following the report over the weekend, council member Mario Castillo on Monday announced on social media that he would withhold his district’s funding for HPD overtime until he received “assurances that my council dollars aren’t supporting HPD and ICE coordination.”
“The comment over the weekend that, ‘We’re not not working with ICE,’ it raised a lot of questions,” Castillo said Wednesday. “It brought the anxiety up, and that, to me, was something that jeopardized the public’s trust with law enforcement, and that’s concerning, because we know how vital it is to have public trust with our local law enforcement, which is why I asked for more transparency and clarity around what that meant.”
Castillo said he “got that clarity” earlier in the meeting on Wednesday. After council member Joaquin Martinez criticized ICE but signaled support for Whitmire and HPD, Whitmire called Houston Police Officers’ Union president Douglas Griffith to the speaker’s podium to explain his understanding of the department’s policies.
“Our policy is that if we have an outstanding warrant, we call,” Griffith said. “Outside of that, we’re not working with ICE.”
Whitmire criticized the reporting and social media discussion of his comments.
“Don’t politicize this,” Whitmire said. “Do not make it part of the social media misrepresentation or the fact that somebody needs to make clickbait out of something. … We are the Houston Police Department. We enforce state and city laws, not immigration, not ICE.”
Even if city officials wanted to end the existing coordination with ICE, city attorney Arturo Michel said, they could be held liable “both civility and criminally” because of state law throttling cities’ abilities to curtail collaboration with the federal agency.
Council members described ICE’s actions as “disgusting” and “horrific.” Martinez said he feared a “heavier hand of ICE” in Houston.
Folks are naïve to think the City of H-Town can avoid dealing with ICE. I don’t like it, but it is what it is. I also understand how this is unsettling to some folks though.
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From the Chron:
LAS VEGAS — Houston Astros closer Josh Hader, whose 2025 season was cut short by a capsule sprain in his shoulder, has resumed throwing off a mound and is on track to be ready for spring training, general manager Dana Brown said Wednesday.
Hader, whose last outing of the season occurred Aug. 8, has thrown from a mound three times in his recovery and is expected to follow a normal offseason program, Brown said.
“Hopefully, we’ll get him ramped up sometime early to mid-February,” Brown said. “But he’s on course to come back and be there for opening day.”
Good to see.