In Act Of "Cowardice", HPD Leaders Skip ICE Hearing-What Are They Hiding?

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​Houston City Council's Public Safety Committee met today, 8/25. The committee, chaired by Republican Amy Peck, was scheduled to hear from Police Chief Noe Diaz and Executive Chief Thomas Hardin. Below you see what was supposed to be agenda for today. This was sent out yesterday, 8/24. 

Here is the HTV feed of the meeting as broadcast on Facebook. You can watch the first 15 minutes and get a firm idea of what took place today. I encourage you to take some time to view the hearing yourself. The more each of us can directly speak to, the stronger we all are.  Here is the Houston Chronicle account of the meeting today which I'm posting with a gift link. (That may or may not work.) 
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Neither Diaz nor Hardin attended the meeting today.  

The purpose of the meeting was to have been to receive a detailed quarterly report about HPD interaction with ICE. This quarterly report is mandated by the ICE ordinance that was otherwise essentially repealed in April of this year. 

The stated-reason given for effective nullification of a lawful city ordinance by Diaz and Hardin was advice from the city legal department. At-large Democratic Councilmember Alejandra Salinas attributed the absence to "cowardice." 

From NPR KUHF today:

"I think we can all agree that their refusal to be here is nothing short of cowardice," Salinas said. 

​The legal department said that Diaz and Hardin should duck the hearing because of a lawsuit filed earlier in August.

From KUHF on 8/4:

"A Honduran man who was deported from the U.S. earlier this year has sued the City of Houston, claiming Houston Police Department (HPD) officers unlawfully detained him for 2 hours before he was taken into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, according to the federal lawsuit."

Councilmember Salinas strongly disputed that Diaz and Hardin were required by the lawsuit to hide from the committee today. No other member of council said much of note. Joaquin Martinez offered his standard two-sided routine that ignored his role as a relentless supporter of Mayor Whitmire. 

Again from KUHF, here are some of the details of the data required by the ordinance that should have been discussed this morning:

"The 103 calls over the last quarter marked a sharp spike in HPD-ICE contacts. The Houston Chronicle reported officers called ICE less than 300 times in the 16 months from January 2025 through April 2026 — an average of less than 20 calls per month. From April through June, HPD averaged more than 30 calls to ICE per month....During the first three-month reporting period, officers held people for as long as three and a half hours while waiting for ICE to take custody of people with immigration warrants. ...And in at least 34 cases reported by HPD, officers contacted ICE after someone called first responders for emergency assistance. According to records obtained by Houston Public Media, that included a woman who reported a man threatened to kill her in April." (Picture above of Ms. Salinas today trying to get question answered about HPD calling ICE on crime victims.) 

My view is that Mayor Whitmire and HPD see themselves as above the law. They don't want to discuss how the city colloborates with ICE. There is little reason for Houstonians to have confidence that Mayor Whitmire and HPD will have our backs and will advocate for us, as the far-right attacks our civil liberties and our elections.

We already know that even the ICE murder of a Houstonian, will not get the City of Houston to be open and transparent about how they cooperate with ICE. 

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