HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — New reporting from ABC13’s partners at the Houston Chronicle is raising questions about how closely Houston police officers are working with ICE agents and whether HPD actions are violating its own policies.
Houston police called federal authorities 154 times last year, and the Chronicle reports that’s up 1,000 percent from previous years.
Police reports obtained by the Chronicle detail two of those times, including one in which officers pulled over a man for driving with an expired registration last summer.
After they looked up his license, reports show officers found an unspecified immigration violation and called ICE. According to the Chronicle, the officers drove the suspect to the Jersey Village police station to be taken into ICE custody.
Then, a month later, it happened again, according to the Chronicle, an officer stopped someone, accused of running a red light, found out the driver had an administrative warrant, called ICE, and then took the driver to the station, where they were placed in ICE custody.
Rica de Maulibot spoke to Houston City Council and said protecting everyone’s right is a priority.
“In the face of increasing and deeply troubling overreach of ICE and DHS, we must do more to ensure their actions, often illegal and unconstitutional, do not overshadow the mission of our local law enforcement to establish trust and cooperation between our city’s police and all of its residents. I urge you to untangle HPD’s alliance with ICE and ensure the safety and dignity of all Houstonians,” said de Maulibot.
Other leaders with the Migration with Dignity Coalition are urging the city to stop the relationship with ICE and HPD.
“Suspending non safety traffic stops will prevent our resources from going towards the threat toward nonviolent people who are just going about their daily lives and possibly subjecting them to the loss of their civil rights and their human rights that ICE has been perpetrating nationwide and With their masks and unmarked cars and lack of due process,” said Jennifer Johnson.
When it comes to ICE administrative warrants, experts who spoke to the Chronicle said they do not give local law enforcement agencies the ability to detain people for ICE and said if local agencies call ICE on traffic stops for those warrants, they risk putting their departments in legal liability.
ABC13 reached out to the mayor’s office for a response. They sent a statement:
“I’m disappointed. It was a violation of Houston Police Department policy, and it will be corrected.”
“As the mayor has previously stated, Houston Police enforce local and state laws. The Houston Police Department is not ICE and does not enforce federal law. When police encounter someone, and it turns out they have a warrant, police are obligated to contact the agency that issued the warrant.”
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