Comparing ICE interactions with HPD, HCSO

If we roll over now to a bully, what will he come for next? I don't understand why he does not want to at least make an effort to fight for Houston's constitutional rights. A little blast from the past with Councilmember Alejandra Salinas and now Interim Harris County Attorney Abby Kamen blasting Mayor John Whitmire and HPD's very limited cooperation with ICE when it comes to handing over detained immigrants with an active warrant for their arrest. The total of these HPD handoffs averages around 20 every three months or less than about 100 a year. This week, we learned that that number pales in comparison to the thousands of undocumented folks handed over to ICE by the Harris County Sheriff's Department via the jail. In fact, since 2024, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez transferred custody of 13,467 undocumented immigrants to ICE, a practice Gonzalez says is his obligation under the law. Panel, the point we should all take away from this is that Mayor Whitmire and HPD endured heavy criticism for following the same law. Criticism Gonzalez somehow dodged, despite the sheriff's office actually handing over roughly 40 times more immigrants for likely deportation. Bill, your thoughts here. So, look, I don't care what you think about the policy of turning over these people or not, whether you're for or against it, but we need to apply the same standard to everybody. That's my problem here. And now that Abby Kamen is the county attorney, I want to know what she's going to do to stand up to the county turning all these people over. If, indeed, she thinks that's such a terrible idea, like she did with city council, my guess is she'll do nothing. The other thing is, This is just people turned over at the jail. We have no idea how many the constables and the sheriff's office are transferring to ICE from stops like HPD because HPD is the only one keeping records on it. If we actually had records for the sheriff's office or the constables, most of which follow exactly the same policies as the city of Houston, we would probably have quite a few that are turned over that way, too. But we don't know because nobody keeps records over there. So, Abby, I want to know what you're going to do about this at the county. Are you going to start requiring records? Are you going to oppose the jail transfers? What exactly are you going to do now that you actually have some power to do something about this? Bob, the governor said... Do what you want, but I'm taking your cash. Lots of it. And the same thing would happen at the county, right? Yeah, and so the city's under no obligation because they don't operate a jail, and so 287G doesn't apply to the city. The county, Ed Gonzalez, when he first got elected, threw out the 287G program, but he didn't change any policies in the jail. It was a head fake to his supporters. He kept turning over, as you mentioned, tens of thousands of migrants every year. to ICE and is continuing to do that. Now he is required by law to have a 287G program and Harris County still does not. And they probably won't until December 31st, which is the deadline for that to take place. So he's doing it voluntarily. He's not doing it because 287G has been mandated on him. And that needs to be clear. As far as your question about how many deputies are turning over immigrants to ICE, my experience with ICE and talking to them locally One of the things that we've seen is that Harris County does not directly do it Some officers, deputies do on their own, but as a policy, they don't do that. Okay, Counselor, jump in here. Well, so the distinction in the numbers is the vast numbers that Harris County has. I mean, so the police do 100 a year because they don't operate a jail that holds thousands and thousands and thousands of people. I don't find the number disparity to be any great deal. Because of the vast number of people that are going in and out of the Harris County Jail. I think that the number disparity is probably right on. Come on. I agree with Bill, though. The interim county attorney ought to hold the same policy that she did with the county, with the city, with the county. If she's going to be that active with the mayor, she ought to be that active with the county and hold the same policy. But I don't find the number to be any great distinction. You were nodding in agreement there, Tom. Yes, I went and spoke at city council when this issue had been brought up. And the governor had removed the additional security money for FIFA. And I went down and spoke and I absolutely said this to them. I was like, you're talking about something he doesn't do. Like, you're talking about something Ed Gonzalez does, but you don't say a damn thing because his last name is Gonzalez. I said, but he has ICE in the jail with him and turns people over daily, but you say nothing. And the fact that they want to use this and weaponize this in the upcoming mayoral race really, really ticks me off. Because get real issues, this is not an issue for Whitmire, because the city doesn't have a jail. They don't have a 287 agreement. I mean, even at the poll, I told Bill, somebody come up to me and was talking about Whitmire and talking about this right here, I clocked their ass so quick they never came back on the side of the road. All right. Still ahead, the Texas Trans Resource Guide sent to millions of kids just ahead of the midterms. Information on the source of the mysterious mailer is now emerging.