 Despite Mayor Whitmire's assertions that HPD would not be assisting ICE, a Houston man stopped for a cracked windshield was reported to ICE by HPD. He was not wanted for any crime. From the Houston Chronicle: "Houston police officers are now being told to call federal immigration authorities anytime they come in contact with one of at least 700,000 people listed in a national database over deportation orders. At least one of whom was a man pulled over in Houston for a broken windshield, advocates said.....Local residents say they're already seeing the effects of the directive in Houston. Family members of Jose Armando Laines Argueta said Houston police turned him over to ICE agents during a traffic stop March 5....Houston Police Department spokesperson Shay Awosiyan said when Argueta was stopped, an “active warrant” showed up in his fingerprint search, and the officer called the number on the warrant, which brought ICE agents to the scene to detain Argueta....Not every city is treating the administrative warrants added to the national database the same as the Houston Police Department. Pittsburgh City Controller Rachael Heisler, for instance, wrote on social media that under current city policy, they wouldn't arrest or detain people based on civil immigration or administrative warrants....Houston City Council member Abbie Kamin questioned how the actions were protecting Houstonians....."Local law enforcement’s job is to keep our city safe from dangerous criminals, regardless of their immigration status," she said. "I have full trust in their ability to do so. But if this report is true, a large number of these 'warrants' have nothing to do with public safety. There is a difference between police keeping us safe, and doing Trump’s dirty work on the taxpayer’s dime, standing-in as immigration enforcement to harass and arrest individuals with no criminal background. Our officers are already stretched too thin — this makes Houston less safe and the mayor should reverse this decision immediately (for the non-criminal category)." There was a ten minute discussion of this issue at Tuesday's public comment session of Houston City Council. The exchange begins at the one hour eight minute mark of the meeting. Houstonian Laura Gallier asks why is HPD stopping people for cracked windshields while serious crimes go univestigated & asks why she as a white woman who herself has a cracked windshield has not been pulled over. Councilmembers Kamin and Sallie Alcorn inquire of Mayor Whitmire what policies the city is following. They got no reply. (Mayor Whitmire does this all the time. He's asked a direct question by a member of the public or a Councilmember and he just blows it off.) Councilmembers Tiffany Thomas and Joaquin Martinez also commented. Above you see Ms. Gallier. Citizen leadership is essential in the difficult days ahead. At the bottom of this post are details on how to speak at Council and follow Council proceedings. As we get deeper into authoritarianism, we'll see more and more that we are the main act & elected officials are bystanders we'll need to drag into the fight. In the conversation at Council Tuesday, Mayor Whitmire passed up the opportunity to reaffirm that the city will not be assisting ICE or to say that HPD should not be pulling people over for cracked windshields. He didn't acknowledge that his pledges about HPD's relationship with ICE do not appear to be correct. Houston City Council must demand answers from Mayor Whitmire. Houston City Council Public Safety Committee Chair Amy Peck should be asking questions. Ms. Peck likely won't do that since she is a Republican and part of the political party working everyday to destroy our rights. Mayor Whitmire appointed her Public Safety chair. The stakes involved are far beyond what HPD is doing. Trump and ICE are rounding people up for whatever reason and sending them to the super-prison run by the crypto-bro, anti-democracy President in El Salvador. There is no reason to trust Trump and ICE or Whitmire and HPD. It's brown-skinned non-citizens today. It's you and I tomorrow. From ABC News: An attorney representing a migrant sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act says her client was deported due to a soccer logo tattoo, according to court declarations submitted Wednesday night......Linette Tobin is representing Jerce Reyes Barrios, a professional soccer player from Venezuela who protested the Maduro regime in February and March 2024 and was detained and tortured after one of the demonstrations.....The tattoo in question showed a crown sitting on top of a soccer ball with a rosary and the word "Dios" (God), according to Tobin. A declaration from the tattoo artist confirmed that Barrios chose it because it was similar to the Real Madrid soccer team logo, the attorney said. According to Tobin, those alleged gang signs were the hand symbol for rock and roll and "I love you" in sign language.... Around March 10 or 11, Tobin said her client was transferred to Texas without notice and was promptly deported to El Salvador on March 15..."Counsel and family have lost all contact with him and have no information" about his whereabouts, Tobin wrote in the court documents. Our Houston municipal elected Democrats have an obligation to protect us to the extent they can from State of Texas government and the federal government. It might not be much. But it would be opposition rather than compliance or resignation or silence. It's not just us they would be protecting. It would be themselves and their families as well. They are no safer than us. Public comment time at Houston City Council is each Tuesday at 2 PM. Here is how you can speak at Council and here is how to contact your councilmember. The earlier before the session you sign up, the higher up on the speaker's list you'll be. The agenda session to conduct Council business is each Wednesday at 9 AM. The agenda is posted in advance. Council can be watched live on HTV Houston Television and is available at any time on the HTV feed on Facebook. Here is the Houston Democracy Project list of things each of us can do to fight Trump/Musk. Here is a fundraising pitch for the Houston Democracy Project. I'm doing the work and showing up in many different ways. Please help the effort. I'm on the Egberto Willies Politics Done Right Show every Thursday from 6 AM to 7 AM for the Houston Democracy Project segment. You can hear the show on the radio, stream it on KPFT or watch later Egberto's YouTube channel.
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