H-Town Blood on MAGA Hands

Here is the headline to a Houston Public Media story on the killing that is today’s featured photo:

Democrats are calling for an investigation into Houston ICE shooting. Republicans have been mostly silent

Former Chron restaurant critic Alison Cook tweeted this:

Something unprecedented happened last night. My MAGA friend (yes, I have one) asked if I had heard “about the man that ICE killed on Canal St.” Yes, I told him, and I doubted the official story. “So do I,” he said.

Here is from a Washington Post article:

The district attorney in Harris County, Texas, said Wednesday that federal authorities have sidelined local officials from participating in an investigation into the fatal shooting of a Mexican man in Houston by an immigration officer.

District Attorney Sean Teare said in a social media post that his office typically conducts a “parallel investigation” into any death caused by law enforcement. But he added: “Unfortunately at this time, federal authorities continue exclusively handling all aspects in this case.”

Here is from the Chron:

Houston Mayor John Whitmire declined to seek a city-led investigation into the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, saying there cannot be a city investigation while a federal investigation is ongoing.

“We’re monitoring it very carefully,” Whitmire said. “It’s truly a tragedy… But there’s no involvement with HPD.”

This is from local Fox 26:

Council Member Edward Pollard was among multiple elected officials calling for a separate HPD investigation.

“We can’t just leave everything up to the federal government and sit back and hope that they will be transparent regarding their own agency and their own actions,” said Pollard.

This is from an Op-Ed in today’s Chron written by a Cato Institute Fellow:

Constraining these stops would save lives, but that would require either a major DHS policy shift or congressional action. Neither is realistic. The Trump administration won’t curb the practice, and a Republican-controlled Congress continues to acquiesce to the president, locking in, through budget reconciliation, nearly a quarter-trillion dollars in immigration-enforcement funding through the end of Fiscal Year 2029. Federal intervention isn’t likely.

That’s precisely why Houston Mayor John Whitmire should be ordering a city-led investigation.  

Local authorities aren’t powerless bystanders. Though state and local governments cannot dictate how federal agents operate within their boundaries, they can limit federal involvement. Like federal officials, state and local officials take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Taking this oath seriously creates a clear tension, as cooperating with federal immigration enforcement has become fundamentally incompatible with the solemn oaths state and local officials take to uphold the Constitution. 

We are not going to get an independent investigation – period. ICE and Homeland Security will not cooperate. They will continue to lie. DA Teare and Mayor Whitmire pretty much recognize this.

I get why folks want an independent investigation, but given the circumstances and the current political environment, what would that even look like.

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was our neighbor. He raised his family here. He’s the guy I see every morning around 7:30 am who parks his pick-up down the street, carrying his lunch in a mini-Igloo cooler, working to rebuild the teardown a few houses away. Doing his job to make H-Town a better place. He could very well be the face of H-Town’s hard-working immigrant community. Now he is dead because of Donald Trump’s ICE.

MAGA brought us to this point in H-Town. You know, H-Town blood on MAGA hands. MAGA Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have helped usher in the current ICE age that has now taken the life of an H-Town neighbor. Abbott and Patrick now have H-Town blood on their hands.

Congressional District 9 MAGA nominee Alex Mealer tweeted this:

Today is yet another reminder of the dangers law enforcement face everyday as they protect our safety. I have full confidence in law enforcement’s ability to conduct a thorough investigation and ensure justice is served.

I wonder if she even knows that the killing took place in the newly redrawn CD 9. I wonder if she has ever been to that part of CD 9.

Here is from the Houston Public Media story:

(Harris County Judge) Republican nominee Orlando Sanchez, one of few Republicans to go on the record on the matter, told Houston Public Media in a statement, “It is far too early in the investigation for me to have a comment on this incident. Let’s wait and allow those tasked with investigating to do their jobs.”

Orlando has some of his campaign signs a few blocks away from the scene of the killing. Orlando knows that community. The folks in the community shop at the Fiesta on Wayside, eat a nice meal at Don Carlos, and they probably checked out the FIFA Fan Fest this past week a short hop away.

I get why MAGA doesn’t want to talk about the ICE killing. ICE is a political loser in H-Town.

ICE is going to lie to our community. That is how they operate.

Like I said, we are not going to get much calling for an investigation. That road is a dead end. We need to make MAGA pay at the polls.

Abbott, Patrick, Mealer, Orlando and MAGA don’t want to talk about ICE. They know ICE is a key reason why Latinos will be voting for Democrats this November. The last thing Abbott and these bozos want to discuss is the killing of a decent and honest family man by ICE on the streets of Magnolia Park.

We are not going to get a thorough and independent investigation. Let’s instead pound Abbott, Patrick, Mealer, Orlando and MAGA over the head with their ICE over the next three and a half months and get our justice in November.