{"id":306671,"date":"2026-05-24T04:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T04:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/306671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T04:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T04:38:09","slug":"life-in-a-persecuted-migrant-community-in-texas-for-us-a-police-officer-is-an-enemy-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/306671\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in a \u2018persecuted\u2019 migrant community in Texas: \u2018For us, a police officer is an enemy\u2019 | U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

Lidia and her family have become increasingly isolated at home as more neighbors are detained by local police or immigration agents. She used to walk for an hour every afternoon, going peacefully to the doctor, to do the shopping, or to take her mother-in-law to church. Not anymore. She doesn\u2019t trust the police either: if she were in a car accident, she\u2019d rather arrive home safely in the damaged vehicle. She lives in Colony Ridge, an immigrant neighborhood 40 minutes from Houston, which for years has been targeted by conservative politicians \u2014 including Texas Governor Greg Abbott \u2014 who consider it a magnet for undocumented immigration.<\/p>\n

Since Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, for Lidia, those arrested in her community went from being someone\u2019s acquaintance to being her own neighbors and friends. She recounts how the father of the family across the street was arrested and deported to El Salvador<\/a> a few weeks ago; the house was abandoned as everyone subsequently left. Her neighbor on the corner was hit by a car on a nearby road and the police, instead of helping her, demanded her immigration papers and, since she didn\u2019t have any, turned her over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> (ICE). Her 13- and 20-year-old children were left alone. A friend of her husband was also detained, and Lidia never found out if he got to try the goat meat she had just cooked for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, when you see a police officer, you go around praying, \u2018Lord, make me invisible to the enemy.\u2019 We no longer see the police and think, \u2018I\u2019m safe.\u2019 No. Now, for us, a police officer is an enemy,\u201d says Lidia. That\u2019s not her real name. She agreed to speak only under a pseudonym because she\u2019s afraid of being recognized and detained by immigration authorities. Other residents of this community preferred not to share their stories for the same reason.<\/p>\n

While she was talking, Lidia called a neighbor whose children were detained three days before Thanksgiving in 2025: one has already been deported to Mexico and the other has been held in an ICE facility<\/a> ever since. \u201cWe had never felt like this: persecuted, harassed,\u201d says the Honduran woman, who has lived in the United States for 13 years, 11 of them in Colony Ridge.<\/p>\n

And she\u2019s not just speaking for herself. Lidia says her six-year-old godson cries if his mother hasn\u2019t arrived home by 4:15 p.m. \u201cHe\u2019s heard the police are going to take his mom away. He starts asking where she is. It\u2019s psychological trauma. This man [Trump] doesn\u2019t see what he\u2019s doing. Children have the right to feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ProtestaProtest at the Dilley Detention Center, Texas, on January 24.Brenda Baz\u00e1n (AP)<\/p>\n

In January 2025, when Trump returned to the White House, Colony Ridge residents walked the streets or did their shopping without fear. They thought they couldn\u2019t be arrested because they hadn\u2019t committed any crimes. At that time, they believed Trump\u2019s promises, the then-Republican candidate having stated during the 2024 election campaign that he would deport \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d \u2014 the criminals. They didn\u2019t feel targeted.<\/p>\n

However, as the months passed and they saw ICE agents, state police, and highway patrol officers stop them for any reason whatsoever \u2014 for having a burned-out taillight, for carrying tools in the trunk of the car, or simply for looking Hispanic \u2014 that feeling changed. Some families chose to keep their children at home, while others sent them to school in Ubers; American neighbors began buying for the undocumented immigrants; and some even sold their land or transferred it to relatives with legal immigration status so they wouldn\u2019t lose it in case of deportation.<\/p>\n

In June 2025, Alejandrina Morales, a resident of this community, summed up the neighborhood\u2019s feelings: \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re being hunted just for looking Hispanic.\u201d Her husband was detained by ICE agents at his own tire shop, and after his release, she said he was never the same again.<\/p>\n

The conservative view on Colony Ridge<\/p>\n

The members of this community don\u2019t call it Colony Ridge. That\u2019s the name given to it by the media and the governor. Its residents \u2014 mostly families of mixed immigration status \u2014 refer to the six neighborhoods where they live, which have been developed by Colony Ridge Land LLC since 2013, individually: Grand San Jacinto, the first one built; Santa Fe, Camino Real, Rancho San Vicente, Montebello, and Bella Vista.<\/p>\n

These are plots of land on the outskirts of Houston, in northeast Texas, cheaper than in the city, with access to basic services, and where owners can build homes \u2014 with restrictions \u2014 or park trailers. Lidia has lived in this community since 2015. She remembers that for years it was a safe place, where it was normal to see children playing in the street.<\/p>\n

The fear now felt by this community \u2014 located in a county where 33% of the population is Hispanic, according to the 2024 Census \u2014 is well-founded. Along with Florida, Texas is one of the states most committed to Trump\u2019s policy of mass detentions and deportations<\/a>. According to ICE records, nearly 400 state police officers have cooperation agreements with the federal agency to hand over custody of those detained or arrested without legal immigration status. Three of these officers serve Liberty County, where Colony Ridge is located.<\/p>\n

Governor Abbott himself has referred to this community as a \u201csanctuary\u201d for undocumented immigrants, a concept he condemns. He has also taken direct action against them. In February 2025, he announced on social media that Colony Ridge would be \u201cthe target\u201d of a joint operation between local and federal authorities to detain immigrants: 118 residents were arrested. Since then, the streets of this neighborhood look much like that day in February, some days with more officers and police, others with fewer, but they are always patrolling.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, for the past three years, undocumented immigrants living in Texas, and in this community in particular, have felt the shadow of a law that would allow state authorities to arrest, detain, and deport them. This is the controversial SB 4<\/a>. The implementation of this legislation \u2014 which has been described as one of the \u201cmost extreme\u201d against immigration \u2014 has been blocked by the courts on several occasions. The latest setback came last week when a district judge in Austin blocked some of its provisions, ruling that they \u201cconflict\u201d with federal agencies, the only ones responsible for enforcing immigration law in the U.S. It remains to be seen what further legal action the state will take in its attempt to implement it.<\/p>\n

\"AgentesFederal agents guard Houston Airport, March 25.Antranik Tavitian (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

This combination of realities is what makes Lidia and the Colony Ridge community continue to add restrictions to daily life: \u201cWe are tied hand and foot right now, hoping that God will take care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018nightmare\u2019 of deportation<\/p>\n

Lidia says that in conversations with her neighbors there is a recurring theme: the deterioration of the mental and physical health of many of them as a result of stress.<\/p>\n

She has high blood pressure. During a recent doctor\u2019s visit, her doctor told her that her blood pressure was higher than normal. Lidia explained that it could be due to increased anxiety and fear that keeps her from sleeping at night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have nightmares every day,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve dreamt that we\u2019re being chased and that later, when we\u2019re in Honduras and want to go back, we can\u2019t; that our relatives don\u2019t answer the phone or that the phone doesn\u2019t have our family\u2019s numbers saved.\u201d These dreams have taken her and her husband back to their childhood homes, which are no longer even owned by their families.<\/p>\n

Lidia says the family doesn\u2019t know what to do. Some days they wake up certain they must sell all their properties in the community and leave for Mexico or Honduras, where they are originally from. Other days they feel they should stay and wait for Trump\u2019s remaining years in office to pass.<\/p>\n

While they decide, she says she will continue to support her neighbors in any way she can. At the beginning of the year, she helped with a fundraising raffle to buy plane tickets for three children who were left alone after their parents were deported. She recalls donating about three more times, whenever she can.<\/p>\n

Although they have lost a great deal over the past few months, Lidia is glad that this time has brought them one benefit: \u201cA community that has learned to stick together more closely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lidia and her family have become increasingly isolated at home as more neighbors are detained by local police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[145,392,56,1829,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-306671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-donald-trump","tag-greg-abbott","tag-houston","tag-ice","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}