#HoustonStrong?

HPD and ICE's Collaboration, the Fourth Amendment, and Spineless Elected Officials

For people heavily engaged in Houston local politics, the last four weeks have been our Coachella. A City of Houston ordinance that sought to limit cooperation between the Houston Police Department (HPD) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prompted threats from Governor Abbott to pull $114 million in state funding. The Houston City Council and the Mayor renegged and had Governor Abbott craft a new ordinance instead. #HoustonWeak seems to be the prevailing governing ethos at the City of Houston.

Councilchella

There have been many twists and turns, and because of my involvement in some of the organizing, I will not go into too much detail on anything behind the scenes. This Chronicle piece provides a great compliment if you want a more detailed account, but it goes too far in presenting certain CMs as concerned community members. If you have no idea what I am talking about, walk with me.

There are many possible start points, but let us begin with the exposé from the Houston Chronicle showing that Houston Police Department officers were directly transferring Houstonians into ICE custody. For people with a regular hobby or knowledge base that is materially useful, the Fourth Amendment generally protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures. Does this still allow an insane amount of discretion in how police officers detain and arrest people? Yes, of course.

The Fourth Amendment is not nearly enough to protect our civil liberties, but it does create some guardrails for police. In particular, the recently decided Rodriguez vs. United States decision by the Supreme Court made it clear that an officer had to release you once the initial reason for the traffic stop concluded, unless they had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. This brings us back to the Houston Police Department and its collaboration with ICE. When HPD was transporting Houstonians to ICE, they were in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, as understood by this uber-conservative Supreme Court, because there was no reason to continue the detention of these Houstonians.

To address possible detractors who might say that if these Houstonians are undocumented, they are inherently criminals, but that misunderstands immigration law. Being in the United States without documentation is a civil infraction, and it has been clearly established that it is enforceable only by federal officers. Something that Texas is seeking to directly challenge with SB4, but that is another article for another day.

As it stands now, most legal experts agree that local police departments do not have the right to detain people for an administrative ICE warrant, which is not signed by a judge and is civil in nature. When Trump began his second term, he added over 700,000 of these administrative warrants to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. HPD’s General Order, the policies set by the Mayor and Chief, which govern how HPD operates, stated that HPD had to call ICE for any NCIC hit, but this policy was set long before these new administrative warrants were added into the system. That is why we saw the over 1000% increase in ICE turnovers by HPD in the last calendar year.

When HPD was encountering Houstonians with, likely, an administrative and not criminal, ICE warrant, HPD was calling ICE and detaining people until ICE showed up. In some cases, they even transported people directly to ICE, as mentioned earlier. Both run afoul of the Fourth Amendment, but Mayor Whitmire was fine with the constitutional violations. Once the Houston Chronicle reported that HPD was directly transporting people to ICE, the Mayor tried to run cover for himself. He held a joint press conference with HPD and announced they were implementing a new General Order that barred transporting people to ICE and set a 30-minute timer on detaining someone for ICE. In trying to fix his mess, he made it worse. By formalizing that Houstonians were being detained beyond the initial reason for an encounter, HPD was in clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.

This policy was widely panned, and newly elected Council Member Salinas moved quickly to capitalize on it. Her proposed ordinance, cosigned by CMs Kamin and Pollard, created new reporting requirements, restated the Fourth Amendment protections of Houstonians, and sought to make ICE turnovers discretionary rather than mandatory. Nothing about this proposal was radical or completely new. Austin and Dallas had already updated their general orders to something similar. The most important part of the ordinance, making calls to ICE discretionary, was struck down by the City Attorney, a Mayoral appointee. This led to broad calls for the position to be made elected, since they are now playing a policymaking role.

Still, the ordinance went up in its watered-down form and passed overwhelmingly, 12-5, with Mayor Whitmire joining the yeses. For a moment, albeit a short one, the City of Houston seemed to be listening to its residents and taking baby steps towards justice. Then, Abbott came calling.

In what can only be described as an Eric Adams-style debacle, Mayor Whitmire engineered a functional repeal of an ordinance he supported within the span of two weeks. Shortly after the ordinance passed, Governor Abbott threatened to pull over $114 million in public safety grant funding from the City of Houston if it did not amend the ordinance. Attorney General Ken Paxton followed with a lawsuit against the city for violating the original SB4.

There are very real questions as to whether either of these threats would materialize into anything substantive for the city. I, for one, would love to see a police defunding of this magnitude to prove the point that they do not need all of this money. Whitmire could have challenged the withdrawals of the grants in court, ensured that Abbott could actually demand repayment of grants already concluded, or lawyered up to defend Houstonians. Instead, he worked tirelessly with a Governor who has never won a majority of votes in Harris County to shape policy for Houstonians.

Whitmire presented an amended Abbott ordinance the day before the City was meant to vote on it, and, unfortunately, Council rolled over with him. The new ordinance passed 13-4, with only the original three signees and CM dissenting. The Abbott ordinance, even though the City Attorney assured CMs it would still protect the Fourth Amendment, once again allows for the unconstitutional detention of Houstonians for the purpose of immigration enforcement. HPD is now right back where it started, with a General Order that is very similar to the one it had in place before this entire fight. Austin and Dallas went through similar threat and amendment processes, but their General Orders still include protections of the Fourth Amendment.

#HoustonWeak

I know for some people who still believe in policing, or are worried that the city’s self-imposed budget deficit is too large to turn down any funding, there was only one option; capitulation. I would contend that HPD already gets more than its fair share of Houstonians tax dollars, and if it were not for the over $100 million raise we approved last year, we would not be broke this year. Still, I will take these arguments in good faith. Let us discuss sovereignty. The City of Houston is one of a few lone oases for Democrats and people who care about justice in a state that despises it. We are flying in the face of fascism, hurricanes, and traffic. If the beautiful, diverse people in this city cannot even set policy to ensure their police department follows the Constitution, are we sovereign? Do we have the power to govern ourselves?

Abbott is a bully who tweets too much, and all we have done in the face of his bullying is bend the knee and kiss his feet. I was shocked when we got rid of the rainbow crosswalk in Montrose at Abbott's request, but I could never have imagined the kind of precedent I was witnessing. Whitmire, through his direct collaboration with Abbott, has confirmed what Abbott has always believed. Houston and its residents are his to bully, brutalize, and beat down. How can the city move forward with any progressive policy when the fear is that Big Brother could return at any time? At the first Council meeting after this fiasco, council members spent a large portion of the meeting fighting over a single bike lane. We are seeing cities across the nation serve as nexuses for resistance against fascism, as cities always have. Not Houston. Whitmire is so focused on us keeping our heads down that we are eating sand.

I hope Abbott loses in November, but we cannot just pray our problems away. The City of Houston needs elected officials who will stand up for its most vulnerable residents. This sitting Mayor and City Council have made it clear that they are not fit for the job. Some of them are about to learn what Houstonians meant when we chanted #HoustonStrong. Houston does not always need to win every political battle, but every hardworking person in this city wants someone who can fight. As a city, we are resilient almost to a fault, and we should not tolerate elected officials who aren’t.

Closing Time

Sorry for the major delay; I was asking my best friend to marry me. Cut the boy some slack. I have also removed the paid option for my newsletter. Not because I plan on writing less, but this shit is getting ugly. I no longer feel comfortable making any money from writing on here, no matter how little. I know my paid subscribers never really got anything extra, but I still thank y’all for your support! I will keep writing because I love to talk, and I hope to continue growing this audience. My next piece will be my long-awaited answer to the question of who is Houston’s Mamdani.

Call the best person you know who doesn’t know how to respond to texts. I am sure they miss you.

Much Love.