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Houston Police Chief Opposes Immigration Enforcement Policy

8:57 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Immigration| Politics| houston| society · 2 Comments

21 May 2009

mototrbo-police-stop Yesterday, Maegan told us about a controversial government policy that would check the immigration status of every person currently being held in U.S. jails. While that in itself is already ruffling a lot of feathers, a similar program, 287(g), is being instated throughout the country, this one more worrisome due to the the other dimension it appears to be taking: local enforcement of immigration laws by police. The Police Chief of one of the cities participating in 287(g), my hometown of Houston, says while his force is signed up for the jail revision part, he is “worried” about the element of local law enforcement checking out the immigration status of everyone it comes in contact with:

Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt was in Washington on Wednesday, supporting a study criticizing the controversial immigration program known as 287(g), in which his department is planning to participate.

Hurtt said the department has applied for 287(g) training for Houston police to use federal immigration databases but only to check on those booked into the city’s two jails.

He said he favors that portion of the program but is opposed to the street-level phase of the federal immigration law, allowing local and state police to make immigration arrests and process offenders for deportation.

The yearlong study of 287(g) by the nonpartisan Police Foundation was critical of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, concluding it erodes law enforcement’s public safety mission, diverts scarce resources, increases exposure to liability to charges of racial profiling, and heightens fear in communities.
“Immigration enforcement by local police is counterproductive to community policing efforts. It undermines the trust and cooperation of immigrant communities, could lead to charges of racial profiling, and increases our response time to urgent calls for service,” Hurtt said during a Capitol Hill press event in Washington.

Yes, folks, the police chief of a city with millions of immigrants doesn’t even feel right about this. What does that tell us?

Hurtt says that Houston’s signing up with the jail revision element of 287(g) wasn’t his idea either, but rather Houston Mayor Bill White, who adopted the action after a police officer was shot by an undocumented immigrant.

Hurtt is apparently quite disturbed by the turn this is taking for Houston, and the Houston Chronicle reports he is considering job offers from other cities, including San Francisco.

Via / Chron.com

Ike Leaves People in Texas Homeless, Shell Shocked and in Need of Help

12:35 pm By Maegan La Mala · Texas| houston · 1 Comment

25 Sep 2008

Nearly 400 people are missing two weeks after Hurricane Ike hit parts of Texas.

“There are a lot of elderly folks, just looking at the age column,”

Many of them are from the hardest hit areas of the county, including Boliver, Crystal Beach and Gilchrist.

About 75% of homes in the Galveston area are uninhabitable.

For the first time since Hurricane Ike blew away much of the city, residents of Galveston began streaming home today.

But the city is in such bad shape, those hurrying back home were given an ominous warning: Bring tetanus shots, rat poisoning and don’t bring children.

If that’s not enough, planes are spraying the city with insecticide to prevent a boom in the mosquito population, the water isn’t drinkable and people are urged to wear face masks to guard against inhaling toxic mold that is proliferating in the sweltering city.

One way you can help is through giving to the Greater Houston Community Foundation.

Via / ABC Local, ABC National, y Para Justicia y Libertad

90 years and life for hate crime against Latino youth

6:58 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Justice| Texas| race · Comments Off

12 Dec 2006

Last month we told you about a hate crime in Houston in which a Latino youth was brutally beaten and sexually abused by a white youth because he tried to kiss white girl. Now, one of the accused in the case, Keith Turner, faces 90 years in prison.

A jury gave a 17-year-old Texan a 90-year jail sentence on Monday for his part in a brutal and racially motivated assault on a Hispanic youth.

“The jury has recommended 90 years for Keith Turner,” a clerk at the 209 Criminal District Court in Houston told Reuters.

The clerk said Turner had 30 days to appeal the sentence and if it remained in place he would not be eligible for parole for at least 30 years.

Turner was convicted on Friday of aggravated sexual assault for the April incident in which the victim was sodomized by a plastic pipe, stomped and burned during an attack at a house party.

His friend, David Tuck, 18 was sentenced to life last month.

Via / Alertnet.org

Fear of deportation makes immigrants spend less

7:34 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration| Money| Texas| houston · Comments Off

24 May 2006

The Houston Chronicle has a very interesting piece today about the economic impact of recent raids against undocumented immigrants in the Latino goods and services sector in Houston. Apparently people are leaving their houses less, some have left their jobs and others are stashing away cash out of fear of they’ll be the among the next group of rounded-up immigrants. The impact is being felt mostly by businesses that cater to the Latino immigrant population in Houston:

Although temperatures are rising, sales of paletas are not.

Carlos Gonzalez said his sales are half of what they should be during this peak season when his mostly Hispanic customers traditionally try to stave off the heat with the fruit-flavored frozen treats.

“It has gone down a lot,” said Gonzalez at an international bus station on Harrisburg Boulevard where he stopped his paleta cart to sell to passengers. “People are afraid to go to work.”

Across Houston, some small businesses that cater to the Hispanic immigrant community are reporting a sales slump that began last month after federal agents swept through pallet company IFCO Systems, detaining undocumented immigrants.

Read the whole article at Chron.com.

Via / The Houston Chronicle

Government pushes Houston to crack down on illegal immigration

6:02 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Cities| Immigration| houston · 3 Comments

7 Dec 2005

I never thought of my hometown as a “haven” for the undocumented (much less its suburb Katy, or Austin), but apparently the U.S. government thinks so, and is pressuring Houston officials to change this:

City Councilman Mark Ellis is trying to force a vote on a plan directing police to enforce immigration law and requiring proof of citizenship for people receiving social services. The local effort coincides with a push by President George W. Bush and bills in Congress to crack down on illegal immigration.

“The federal government, they’re not going to be able to get their arms around this issue alone,” Ellis said in a telephone interview. “They’re going to have to have assistance from the local government and state government.”

Taxi boom linked to Latinos

1:22 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Marketing| Texas| business · Comments Off

28 Nov 2005

Proof that a boom in an emerging market can spur the appearance of products or services that the mainstream has been needing or wanting but wasn’t provided:

The 14 calls Fiesta got on its first day of business have multiplied into nearly 500,000 dispatched calls annually. A half-million more customers are picked up by drivers at Hispanic supermarkets, Latino-aimed bus companies and through direct cell calls to cabbies.

A handful of Mexican-American drivers in 1985 has grown to a team of 220 cabbies who hail from throughout Latin America. Almost all of them own their cabs and operate small businesses on wheels.

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