ICE agency transparency
We all know people in the Rio Grande Valley who are living here illegally, but they work hard, raise decent families, and stay out of trouble.
So far, ICE has said its main focus is arresting people with violent criminal records who are in the U.S. illegally and/ or those in their company when ICE takes them into custody. Not a good place to be, but there you have it.
A story out of Houston last week, however, seems to contradict that narrative. In a story published March 3rd, 2025, by The Houston Landing, a guy in a colonia development called Colony Ridge was taken into custody by ICE agents.
Problem is, apparently, according to his wife, the guy is a hard worker, owns his own tire shop; and to make the story even more tragic, if the facts check out, his daughter is hospitalized following an amputation, and his granddaughter is battling a heart condition. (Source: TexasTribune.org.)
In a subsequent post on X, ICE wrote that 118 people had been arrested, including people with prior convictions that included homicide, theft, and child sexual abuse.
However, among those arrested, ICE would not disclose how many were actually charged with a crime or had a significant criminal history.
So much for transparency, claim ICE critics.
Great job, say ICE supporters.
An Honest Guy?
According to the story in The Houston Landing, the man taken into custody by ICE two weeks ago has been married 32 years. He and his wife have owned land in Colony Ridge since 2019, and the man opened his own tire shop in 2020. According to the wife, the tire shop owner has no criminal record.
The Houston Landing, however, found that the man was charged in 2004 with aggravated assault and driving under the influence that same year. The charges were later dismissed in 2020 by a Kansas prosecutor. According to the wife, however, the man came to the U.S. on a work visa, and it was his coworkers who drunkenly crashed his car while he was sleeping innocently in the passenger seat.
According to the same Houston Landing story, the wife took to social media and wrote about how her husband had been in this country for 20-something years and all he did was work. According to the wife, all those arrested by ICE two weeks ago were construction workers and others working in the blue-collar trades.
Among the 118 taken into ICE custody two weeks ago outside of Houston (Colony Ridge), the only man about whom ICE would disclose any personal info is 39 years old and has previously been deported three times, According to ICE, he was arrested two weeks ago on a warrant for alleged repeated sexual abuse of a minor between November 2008 and November 2016.
According to the same Texas Tribune story, when ICE was asked for details about other arrests made in Colony Ridge, the media was told, “We don’t publicly release details, and every arrest we make is a course of routine daily enforcement operations.”
The trouble with that policy, is the idea of non-transparency.
If ICE is really taking dangerous felons off the street, which it is, that’s great. But if they’re also taking innocent people off the street who have been in this country working hard for years, and their only crime, so to speak, is being in this country illegally, is it fair to everyone involved to just boot them back across the border, or send them home to, say, Venezuela, a country about which they know very little?
Most thinking people agree that ICE is right if it takes violent offenders off our streets. Who wants Chester the Molester living next door to our kids, our grandkids? Nobody, except maybe another like-minded perv.
However, if ICE is going to start going into tire shops and just checking papers, so to speak, arresting Joe the Plumber, or Sylvia, the motel maid, then doesn’t the question of fairness need to play a part in all of this?
Or are we just going to play hard ball, no relief for anyone?
Brother Trouble
If you’re in this country illegally, that’s all ICE needs to deport you, even if you’ve lived here for 20 years, have kids, grandkids, a business?
Still, a lot of questions that need asking.
So far, the only thing Border Czar Tom Homan has said, repeatedly, is, if you’re in this country illegally, you’re still at risk of deportation, even if ICE is currently targeting violent offenders.
In other words, if you’re here illegally, undocumented, call it what you will, but you’re an honest guy who works hard to feed your family, and you know that your brother is a wanted felon, don’t let him stay around your house. In fact, stay far away from him.
It’s not worth the risk. If your brother wants to argue the point, he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.
Stay clear.