Work Ahead Is Ours, Every Community Matters-Downtown Houston No Kings

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​I spoke at the Houston Downtown No Kings yesterday, 3/28. That's me speaking above. I'm appreciative of being included by the organizers. 

(Here is the Houston Press report on yesterday's No Kings.)

Here is what I said at No Kings: 

My name is Neil Aquino. I’m the founder of the Houston Democracy Project. 

This event today was organized by people just like you and I. Rank & file leaders who stepped up. The resources to stage this protest are from our local community. 

The next action is when you organize it. The First Amendment is your permit. The only credential you need is your presence. Voting will not be enough 

This protest is Downtown. But it’s at not the center. Across the Houston-region today, there are No Kings demonstrations in La Porte, Navasota, Katy, Galveston, Fort Bend County, Clear Lake, Conroe, Cypress, Kingwood, Pasadena, Angleton, Pearland, Brenham, The Woodlands, Coldspring & both Bryan and College Station. (Here is a USA Today story that talks about the high national turnout yesterday & that much of that turnout was driven by protests outside big cities.) 

No community is on the periphery. No person is on the periphery. We are all in this fight.  

We are at Houston City Hall. There is a mayor, a city controller and 16 council members. The Mayor is John Whitmire. The Controller is Chris Hollins. The Mayor Pro Tem is Martha Castex-Tatum. She is a citywide official. There are 10 Democrats and 6 Republicans on Council. 

Local government and local officials matter. Right now there is an ordinance before Council that would regulate how the City of Houston  interacts with ICE. It may or not get the needed nine votes. But contact Houston City Hall on the matter & acquire the practice of pressuring city hall all the time for our freedom. Voting will not be enough & the conventional political process at city hall will not be enough. Let’s show up for ourselves. 

Every elected official takes an oath to the Constitution. They must meet that oath. When ICE rounds up people without cause, elected officials must remember the oath they took. Call, e-mail and speak to Houston City Council. You can speak at Council most Tuesdays at 2 PM & once a month at 5:30. The next evening session is March 31. Learn the details of the process and demand local accountability.  

Mayor Whitmire has made clear that nothing will cause him to address Trump and Abbott.  The Pride Crosswalk in Montrose, Ice in Houston/Harris County, ICE at the airports & the threats to free Harris County elections from Abbott and Trump in 2026 are all connected. We must lead the response ourselves. 

Our opponents seek to criminalize political opposition and restrict free speech. They didn’t scare us off today. We are confronting authoritarians and white supremacists. It will not be inherently safe. The thing is of course, that a future under authoritarian, white supremacist government that can’t be removed, will also not be safe and it will be terrible. 

We have rights. We have First Amendment rights, and as we’ve been told over and over all our lives, we have Second Amendment rights. We have the right to show up, to speak up and to self-defense. 

We are the ones who will show up when habeas corpus is suspended, when Greg Abbott does not permit Harris County to have fair elections, when low flying helicopters terrorize Houston communities like we saw in Chicago & when ICE shoots people dead with no accountability like in Minneapolis. 

We saw how people responded in South Korea in 2024 when martial law was declared. They showed up for themselves and prevailed. We saw how the rank & file showed up for others in Minnesota. They fought back. We will show up for ourselves all across the Houston-region no matter what is ahead. 

The next action is when you organize it. The First Amendment is your permit. The only credential you need is your presence. Voting will not be enough. No community is on the periphery. No person is on the periphery. We are all in this fight.  

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