On Monday, Texas state police and local police focused on a mostly Latino neighborhood near Houston for what Gov. Greg Abbott said was an operation to enforce immigration laws.
The operation was mostly focused on Colony Ridge, a group of unincorporated subdivisions northeast of Houston that has been criticized by right-wing media and activists who say that the mostly Republican area is controlled by drug cartels and is a magnet for immigrants. These claims have not been proven.
In a post on X, Abbott said, “Colony Ridge is being targeted today.” He said that the Texas Department of Public Safety and special officers helped Homeland Security Investigations with the housing project.
“They are going after criminals and illegal immigrants.” In his post, Abbott said, “I have worked with Tom Homan on this for months.” Homan is President Trump’s border czar.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement was told by Texas DPS that NBC News should ask Immigration and Customs Enforcement about how many people were detained or arrested and whether the arrests were connected to immigration. ICE did not answer right away when asked for a statement.
A civil rights group run by immigrants called FIEL Houston put up a live video on Facebook of its members driving around Colony Ridge and telling people not to open their doors and to stay quiet if they are stopped.
People from FIEL said that Liberty County sheriff’s cars were in the area, along with Texas DPS cars and unidentified cars.
“Not a thing on hard! Do not sign anything! Do not speak! “(Don’t talk!)” one of the FIEL members yelled out the window in both English and Spanish as they drove by a stopped Liberty County constable car, a DPS SUV, three police officers, a pickup truck, and a man standing next to a white van with ladders on the roof.
FIEL Houston spokesman Alain Cisneros told NBC News that streets were shut in the morning and that there were a lot of DPS cars and people in the city stopping people.
“People are getting pulled over all the time,” a member of FIEL Houston said during the live Facebook show. “We don’t think you should drive right now if you don’t have a license.”
Police stopped some trucks carrying workers on their way to work, Cisneros said. Many of the workers were going to work in construction.
His group in Cleveland, Texas, had not seen any kids being picked up, and the nearby school was closed, according to him.
One of the FIEL Houston members told the other to stay cool if they were pulled over at one point.
In 2023, conservatives and right-wing media called Colony Ridge a “no-go” area for police, a safe haven for people in the U.S. illegally, and a center for drug gang activity.
Police departments did not agree with the story that was being told by right media. After Abbott put the claims on the short agenda of a special parliamentary session, not much was done by the lawmakers.
Abbott has had his own multibillion-dollar operation to stop illegal immigration for years, called Operation Lone Star. He uses Texas DPS troopers to enforce state rules against breaking the law and entering the country illegally. His goal is to get the federal government to pay back the state for the $11 billion it spent on the project.
The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was run by Vice President Joe Biden at the time, sued the developer of the subdivision, saying that he had illegally targeted Hispanics with bad loans, misleading ads, and housing that wasn’t up to par.
The company said the claims were false and that it had given loans to people who couldn’t get loans anywhere else.
