Houston council members seek to put new limits on HPD contact with ICE

All right, now let's bring it back local a little bit. So right after the election, right, and we saw that historic win here in Texas with Gina Hinojosa and also James Tallarico here. We saw the mayor of Houston immediately make some changes to the way the Houston Police Department interacts with ICE. And now. Some Houston City Council members, they want that in writing. They say, okay, we can announce the policy here today, but what does it mean if it's not on paper? Karis Belger joining us now with this because Karis, not everybody on the city council here, but give us who is in fact behind this and did you get a chance to speak to any of them today? I did actually. So three city council members in particular, Alejandra Salinas is kind of the marquee member here who mentioned this. Edward Pollard and Council Member Thompson are also mentioned in this. And essentially, Council Member Salinas told me she wants the rules to outlast Mayor Whitman. She filed the proposal today with those council members that I mentioned. So just to break down what the proposal would say, it would limit when Houston police can extend a stop, detain someone, or call ICE based solely on a civil immigration warrant. It would also add details to HPD's quarterly reports, including why someone was booked into jail and whether officers contacted ICE about a victim or a suspect. Now, you may remember not too long ago I was talking to you about the interaction data between HPD and ICE. Ice officers and often they were waiting there for 45 minutes or more for ice to come. So Salinas mentions that also part of this is trying to lower those wait times because also clogs up 911 right when people are asking for help. So Thomas told us she's been asking for more details since July but Salinas says she ultimately wants to see permanent change and she believes the mayor is taking the lead. She's just picking up what he's putting down. The protections that the mayor announced on Friday should not just stay with one mayor, but should last throughout Houston and be the law of the land. Now I also spoke with Patricia Cabrera, she also oversees the East End Communities Organization. She actually testified at that congressional hearing when they were looking into what happened to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. She was there with a number of other people who represented Magnolia Park. Now she told me when it comes to Friday's change and also this new update from Salinas, she wants to know what exactly this will do for the people in the community who she says are scared, who they say have had their trust eroded by law enforcement. More specifics rather than just what she's already seen be put on the table by law enforcement and by city leaders. Okay, so you guys are probably hearing this report because this is the first thing I thought about, right? So yes, the mayor announced this directly after the election, which when you look at the pros and cons of it, it made sense why he said that, right? And I say that because now he was going into a Democratic governor, so he believes that that aligns with him, so he made that announcement. But on the flip side, in the past, he decided not to do something like this because the governor was still there in Austin, Governor Abbott. And then if he made changes that was not in line with Texas, the governor had the ability to withhold money and funds. So now what is the mayor saying now that he has his own city council members saying we want this in writing with the governor there heading in that's going to be a Democrat? Well, the mayor is kind of saying not so fast here, right? Obviously, he understands why people would want to codify this. But he's ultimately saying that he's worried that this organization His ordinance would butt up against state law and cause more problems. So basically, don't do too much is what he's telling Salinas and these other council members. He wants to put trust in Austin and in the lawmakers at the state level to do what he believes is best, not just for Houston, but for the rest of the state. Okay, so that's gonna come down to Austin, right, and see what they do there. So all eyes will be on Austin. We had some history made there with Democrats winning. So we'll see how that impacts change. Karis, good job. Thank you. Thank you. We'll see what happens now.