![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Marsha-Kamish.jpeg\")
Marsha Kamish protests Immigration and Customs Enforcement near Katy Freeway on January 10. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n
Senate Republicans earlier this week called for<\/a> Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign as Democrats threatened to launch impeachment proceedings against her. Trump\u2019s immediate response was to tell White House reporters on Tuesday, \u201cI think she\u2019s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure.\u201d<\/p>\n Kamish isn\u2019t buying the GOP change of heart. \u201cThey\u2019re seeing the handwriting on the wall,\u201d she said. \u201cBelieve me, it\u2019s not coming out of the kindness of their hearts. I accept what they say but I question their motives. [Trump] is losing support left, right and center, and I don\u2019t see him finishing his term.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kamish says she supports action over rhetoric. She\u2019s just not sure how effective the pushback will be when the country\u2019s leader appears to have gone rogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s clearly losing his mind,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take the 2026 midterms to get the majority back and impeach him and get him out of office. I don\u2019t think anyone is going to rein him in. He needs to be put out. There\u2019s no reining in someone who has no conscience.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n An Occupying Force?<\/p>\n Houston residents advocated for police accountability long before Trump began his second term last year, with interest ramping up significantly after George Floyd<\/a>, a Black man who grew up in Houston, was killed in 2020 by a white police officer in Minneapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Black Lives Matter<\/a> movement was polarizing; the ICE occupation of American cities is a whole new ballgame. While pervasive fear existed only among undocumented immigrants early last year, it\u2019s become clear that anyone can be targeted, said Brittany Francis, executive director of Peoples\u2019 Counsel<\/a>, a Houston-based nonprofit that supports police accountability and survivors of law enforcement misconduct.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it could happen in Houston. I think it could happen anywhere,\u201d Francis said. \u201cThat\u2019s the scary consequence of any law enforcement receiving the message that they are above accountability and above consequence for how they treat people. I think the mask-wearing makes it worse because people aren\u2019t contemplating even being known for their cruelty.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Houston City Council Member Edward Pollard sent a letter to the local ICE field office asking that agents remove face coverings and identify themselves when interacting with the public. He got no response.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is a win-win,\u201d Pollard said in a video message posted January 5. \u201cIt helps for residents to know who\u2019s a legit agent and for agents to know that they can engage with the public without someone thinking they are [impersonating a law enforcement officer]. I\u2019m a strong advocate for a secure border and a reasonable pathway to citizenship but we as Houstonians have to ensure that all of our neighbors, regardless of background, are treated with dignity and respect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Francis said that the strategy of Governor Abbott and Houston Mayor John Whitmire to stay off Trump\u2019s radar to avoid being targeted has not been successful.<\/p>\n The New York Times reported in January that the Greater Houston area saw more ICE arrests than any other U.S. city or region, based on federal data. The newspaper later clarified that the statistics came from a broad multi-county area, not just the City of Houston. The report stated that between January and October 2025, ICE made about 5,200 \u201cat-large\u201d community arrests and roughly 9,300 arrests via jails and prisons in the Greater Houston area.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI get the sense that Abbott and Whitmire are playing this game of, maybe if they\u2019re not openly anti-Trump, Texas and Houston won\u2019t be targeted, but that\u2019s not necessarily the case,\u201d Francis said. \u201cAlready we\u2019re seeing a lot of cooperation between HPD and ICE.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEach of those interactions, each of those traffic stops leading to ICE being called, is a potential death, especially because we\u2019re seeing that ICE recruitment is suffering,\u201d she added. \u201cThey\u2019re bringing in volunteers. They\u2019re sending out people on the streets who aren\u2019t trained. It\u2019s a recipe for disaster.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Scores of advocates have headed to City Hall to call for an end to \u201cnon-safety traffic stops,\u201d interactions with police over broken taillights or tinted windows that have, in the recent past, led to undocumented people being referred to ICE because they have an outstanding warrant.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kamish said it\u2019s concerning that so many ICE arrests are made in the Houston area and yet \u201cwe hear very little about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re keeping our eyes open but we don\u2019t see the ICE agents,\u201d she said. \u201cWhere are they going and who are they getting? Why do we not hear about it?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n As a Democratic Party precinct chair, Kamish joined 185 of her peers in voting to admonish Whitmire<\/a> in December, meaning the party will not endorse him in any future elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think he shares my values as a Democrat. If he did, he\u2019d be standing up, saying, Not in my city,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 100 people showed up at a public comment session at Houston City Hall on Tuesday evening to protest ICE. Social media posts declared that Whitmire and several council members walked out during the meeting, before half of the registered speakers could share their comments. They took their protest to Bagby Street outside City Hall, chanting, \u201cICE out of Houston now!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pollard wrote on social media after the meeting that there was confusion about the start time and some speakers were delayed by long security lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI felt it was important that these community members, who made the effort to sign up and attend, had the opportunity to speak,\u201d the councilman said. \u201cAs a result, I stayed afterward and facilitated a session in the Legacy Room to ensure all remaining speakers were heard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Taking it to the Streets<\/p>\n Houstonians mobilized to protest ICE, among other things, at two local No Kings demonstrations at City Hall in June and October 2025. Kamish says ICE agents haven\u2019t shown up at the protests she attends, but if they did, she wouldn\u2019t be afraid of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t have any dependents, except for my puppy and he will be taken care of if something happens to me,\u201d Kamish said. \u201cSometimes you just have to take a stand. You can\u2019t let fear rule your life. That\u2019s what they want. Then you sit there and do nothing and they take all the power. There\u2019s also safety in numbers. If you want to come and stand behind me, I\u2019ll take the bullet for you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Critics of the Trump administration have not only questioned why the Minneapolis shootings occurred in the first place, but why the officers who fired their weapons appear to be protected from scrutiny and punishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old woman who was a U.S. citizen born in Colorado, was shot in the head three times by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent while driving her vehicle in an area where several agents were stationed. Trump defended ICE Agent Jonathan Ross\u2019 actions, claiming on social media after the incident that Good \u201cviolently, willfully and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The incident that got the attention of gun rights activists was the January 24 shooting by a border patrol agent of ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Pretti was armed \u2014 he had a gun in a holster and a permit to carry it \u2014 but video from the incident reveals that Pretti did not appear to be approaching the federal agents but rather was helping a woman who had been knocked to the ground by officers. He was a U.S. citizen born in Illinois with no criminal record.\u00a0<\/p>\n Within hours of Pretti\u2019s death and little information to go on, Trump called the man a \u201cdomestic terrorist.\u201d Bill Essayli, who was appointed by Trump to temporarily serve as a U.S. attorney in California last year, posted on social media, \u201cIf you approach law enforcement with a gun, there is a high likelihood they will be legally justified in shooting you.\u201d<\/p>\n But video of Pretti\u2019s death shows that the Minnesota man wasn\u2019t holding the gun. It shows an officer reaching to Pretti\u2019s lower back and stepping away with \u201cwhat appeared to be a pistol \u2014 and Pretti subsequently being shot to death,\u201d The Guardian reported<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0The National Rifle Association<\/a> and lobbying group Gun Owners of America, two organizations that have traditionally aligned with Trump, criticized Essayli\u2019s comments, suggesting that the narrative is \u201cdangerous and wrong.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cResponsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens,\u201d the NRA posted.\u00a0<\/p>\n The discussion about Second Amendment rights and aggressive policing has also caught the attention of unlikely, typically apolitical commentators, such as an 800,000-member Reddit group devoted to videos of people playing their cats like drums, the Washington Post reported<\/a> earlier this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n A coffee shop employee in Dallas quit her job<\/a> because she was required to give ICE agents a first responder discount, and group chats previously devoted to golf have evolved into discussions on border patrol.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kamish says that\u2019s because people are scared and uncomfortable with the direction the country is going. \u201cSigning petitions does nothing,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have to talk about it. We have to show up. We can\u2019t just sit around and wait for someone to tell us what to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t expect [Senate Democratic Caucus Leader Chuck] Schumer up in New York to tell us what to do and to lead us into freedom,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s just not going to happen. We have to get out on the streets and do it ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n ICE agents took 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father from their Minneapolis home on January 20 to a detention facility in Dilley, south of San Antonio. A photo of the boy in a blue knit bunny hat and Spiderman backpack circulated around the country as people questioned why a child was taken into custody in his own driveway.\u00a0<\/p>\n CNN reported<\/a> that Liam\u2019s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, does not appear to have a criminal record, which flies in the face of Trump\u2019s assertion that the ICE immigration sweeps are targeting violent criminals and the \u201cworst of the worst<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n At-Large Houston Council Member Julian Ramirez, a Republican, has hosted community roundtable discussions to address the unrest and public safety concerns of having ICE agents in the community. Ramirez said after Pretti\u2019s shooting in Minneapolis, he was deeply troubled and heartbroken.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis loss of life is unacceptable and only deepens the fear and mistrust already felt in our neighborhoods,\u201d the councilman wrote on social media. \u201cReckless, heavy-handed ICE operations put everyone at risk and must stop now. We cannot \u2014 and will not \u2014 accept a reality where people being killed in our streets becomes routine or excusable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Kamish said the Republican scrutiny is welcome but the sentiment among protesters, however, is that a tersely-worded Facebook post from a Texas city council member isn\u2019t going to amount to change in the Trump administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s going to take a march on Washington, and I\u2019m ready to go,\u201d Kamish said. \u201cI\u2019ve got a dog-sitter ready. My car is filled with gas. I\u2019ve got signs in the car. This is crazy. People need to know that we\u2019re about to lose our America. Whatever you think it was, we\u2019re not going to have it anymore. I\u2019m not going to sit around and put up with it. Just like the people in the 1930s, I\u2019m ready to be part of the resistance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Court Battles\u00a0<\/p>\n Harris County Attorney Jonathan Fombonne announced<\/a> last week that the county joined a lawsuit against the federal government\u2019s \u201cOperation Metro Surge,\u201d arguing that the current approach amounts to an authoritarian overreach that threatens local authority and community safety.<\/p>\n The Trump administration confirmed earlier this week that ICE Chief Greg Bovino and some federal agents were leaving Minnesota. Bovino has reportedly been removed<\/a> from his position and is expected to retire soon. Other high-ranking officials could also be fired.\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump said this week that he\u2019d talked to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and is deploying Border Czar Tom Homan to the Twin Cities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all criminals that they have in their possession,\u201d Trump wrote on his Truth Social site Monday afternoon. \u201cThe governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, pressure is mounting in Congress to withhold funding from ICE and create a standoff that could lead to another government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enforcing immigration law isn\u2019t new to Texas, but critics say Trump\u2019s aggressive approach is different from what previous administrations did, which was limited to arresting people who were illegally crossing the border into the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Peoples-Counsel.jpg\")
Members of the Peoples\u2019 Counsel, Texas Civil Rights Project and Pure Justice pose with Houston City Councilman Edward Pollard, second from right, at a recent event. Credit: Alfredo Dominguez<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ICE-OUT-1.jpeg\")
Protesters take to the streets on a weekly basis in Houston with the message that they want ICE out of the community. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Unicorns-against-ICE.jpg\")
Houston protests were more lighthearted prior to the shooting deaths of American citizens in Minnesota by federal agents this month. Credit: April Towery<\/p>\n