That is what many young brown American citizens are hearing these days. Those lessons will remain with them for the rest of their lives, so that they cannot trust the police.
I know that I am one of the few bloggers in this area who writes about the immigrant community, especially those who are here illegally. Today, the Houston Chronicle published an article that attempts to uncover the truth about the city and county’s actions and the reasons behind their silence.
At 5:50 a.m. late last month, Alejandra counted. One, two, three — 18 vehicles in all — lined up inside her apartment complex in southwest Houston where she has lived all her 18 years. She spotted a sheriff’s patrol in the line of unmarked cars, the headlights spilling white into the darkness. She didn’t let herself think the worst.
It was only day two of her first semester at Houston Community College. She couldn’t be late. Not when her full-ride scholarship hinges partly on attendance.
Maybe the gate was stuck, she told herself. Maybe they were doing maintenance. Maybe anything but what her father recognized in a heartbeat: the tactical vests, the set of the shoulders, the long guns. He tugged her back inside. A neighbor sprinted, too. “We could just hear his chanclas hitting the floor,” she told us later.
… Alejandra’s sister, only 5, refused to doze off again. But it’s morning, she insisted. Time for school! Why weren’t they going to school?
“No ma, police are outside,” Alejandra said tenderly.
Her sister wanted to know why. Because they’re looking for someone, Alejandra replied.
But that’s good, police are good, the 5-year-old insisted.
…Alejandra swallowed and answered what was true in that moment, even if it split her. “Not right now, mija. Right now they’re not good.”
She held her voice steady. She had to keep it together for her sister.
The Chronicle is asking those hard questions of the elected and appointed government officials. But as the headline above, “Houston avoids LA’s immigration spectacle, and gets something much worse,” suggests, our government officials are not being transparent as to what is happening here in Houston. I don’t watch much television, but I am known to binge-watch TV series, and I’ve just finished watching one that consisted of 80 episodes. But my wife does watch television, and it often glued to Univision. I frequently sit there with her on one of my computers and can hear what is being shown. I had noticed that Univision has also been remarkably silent regarding the extent of what ICE is doing in our backyard. Univision provides significant guidance to undocumented individuals, outlining the necessary steps, but it remains silent on the extent of the apprehensions in this area.
Houston has, it’s true, largely been spared the immigration policing spectacle that keeps other cities on edge: the viral clips from Los Angeles, Boston and New York showing National Guard officers near school drop-offs, masked agents smashing glass, parents hauled away in front of their children. It’s tempting to call our lack of spectacle a mercy. It may even be calculation. By maintaining a perception and minimum of cooperation between the feds and local law enforcement, our local leaders keep Washington satisfied. Keep Guard troops off our streets. Keep the cameras pointed elsewhere.
But after the U.S. Supreme Court’s preliminary ruling last week effectively legalizing immigration stops based on little else but where a person works, the language they speak or the shade of their skin — the quiet isn’t comfort. It’s cover.
The lack of theatrics makes it hard to believe that arrests in Texas actually dwarf those in California. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data, Texas reported more than 26,000 arrests in the first five months of Donald Trump’s second term — three times as many as in California. When factoring in population, Texas led the nation.
Houston and Harris County led the country in deportations, quietly as mice, but they think people, especially the immigrant community, are unaware, but they know. They are teaching their children and learning, maybe for the first time, that the police are not to be trusted.
