The Trump administration has made no secret of its intention to crack down on criminal illegal immigration through ICE enforcement. At the same time, Texas has laws that mandate cities and counties cooperate with ICE. Therefore, it should not be breaking news that incidences of local police cooperating with ICE enforcement would see a substantial increase this year. And yet, the Houston Chronicle is sounding the alarm over this development, citing immigrant fear over the “1,000%” increase in HPD calls to ICE since Trump took office.
The number of calls from HPD to ICE has gone up 1,000% (from less than 10 last year to 107 this year), but that is only because ICE under Trump is now issuing far more warrants for illegal alien criminals. “Any warrant that comes up in our database, we must contact the agency involved,” says Doug Griffith, President of the Houston Police Officers Union. “We are mandated by law to call and confirm if the warrant is active, and if they want to take them. We do that the same with ICE as we do with any other agency, whether it’s Austin, San Antonio, Pasadena, whatever.”
The Chron also seems to think this “cooperation” between HPD and ICE on warrants is a violation of Mayor John Whitmire’s “pledge” that HPD would not get involved in ICE operations. But Whitmire’s comments from earlier this year confirmed what Griffith said–that officers must contact the arresting agency if someone has a warrant. Whitmire added that Houston Police would not directly participate or help in ICE enforcement actions, but would carry out its duties to enforce local and state law and arrest criminals regardless of their immigration status.
Griffith says that is exactly what HPD is doing. “As far as helping ICE, our only job is to contact them should we find someone with an open warrant,” he tells KTRH. “We’re not going to Home Depot and rounding people up, we’re not going to ask questions about people’s status, we don’t have the manpower to do that kind of stuff, nor would we anyway.”