Excuse Me While I Beat My Own Drum
Some mornings I wake up humble.
This was not one of them.
On January 20, I wrote a story titled “Harris County Needs New Latino Elected Leaders.”
I wasn’t subtle.
I argued that too many of our Latino elected officials had become comfortable with Mayor John Whitmire and the Democratic political establishment while the people they represented were becoming increasingly frightened by Trump’s immigration crackdown.
I named names.
Carol Alvarado. Sylvia Garcia. Armando Walle. Ana Hernandez.
And believe me, “MAGA lite” was nowhere near the worst thing I have called politicians over the years.
Now, six months later, I opened the Houston Chronicle and found a story describing Mayor Whitmire’s growing political problem with Houston’s Latino community over ICE.
Excuse me while I reach for my drum.
The Chronicle even divides the politicians almost exactly along the fault line I was writing about in January.
One section is headed:
“Longtime allies stand by Whitmire.”
Carol Alvarado is among those defending him.
The argument is understandable. Gov. Greg Abbott threatened Houston with the loss of $114 million after City Council tried to restrict cooperation between Houston police and ICE. Whitmire backed away from the original policy rather than risk the money.
There is always a reason not to fight.
You might lose state money.
You might anger the governor.
You might anger Washington.
You might damage a political friendship.
You might hurt yourself in the next election.
Those are real considerations.
But the people you represent are taking risks too.
They risk being stopped.
They risk being detained.
They risk having their families torn apart.
And now a Houston man is dead.
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an ICE agent on July 7. Questions and contradictions about what happened have continued to emerge, including the revelation that Salgado was not the original target of the federal operation.
Whitmire initially said Houston would not conduct its own investigation. Two days later, after growing pressure, he called ICE’s conduct “out of control” and joined demands for an independent investigation.
That is the political balancing act the Chronicle is writing about today.
I was writing about it in January.
But before I beat my drum too loudly, there is someone I owe some credit.
Alejandra Salinas.
I criticized Salinas when she first ran for City Council.
I remember seeing campaign messaging emphasizing gay children and thinking: you are running to represent an entire city. You are gay, and there is nothing wrong with fighting for gay children, but I thought the message defined her too narrowly. To me it sounded like one group came first and everybody else came afterward.
I didn’t like it.
So I criticized her.
Fair is fair.
Now I have to write the other half.
When it came time to fight, Alejandra Salinas fought.
She didn’t just issue a press release after everybody else decided which way the wind was blowing.
Salinas, along with Abbie Kamin and Edward Pollard, helped push the proposal limiting HPD cooperation with ICE. When Abbott threatened Houston and the city retreated, Salinas voted against the retreat and said the fight was far from over.
Then Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed.
The next day, Salinas publicly called for an immediate, impartial investigation and demanded that the evidence be released.
That was before Whitmire changed his position.
I criticized her when I thought she deserved criticism.
Today I give her credit because she earned it.
That is something politicians sometimes forget about people like me.
I don’t need you to agree with me.
I don’t even need to like you.
Give me something worth respecting and I will respect it.
That makes something about today’s Chronicle story particularly interesting.
Salinas isn’t mentioned.
The Chronicle discusses Latino leaders standing by Whitmire. It gives Christina Morales deserved attention for saying Houston folded under Abbott’s pressure and that elected officials need to do more.
But somehow a story about Whitmire, ICE and Latino political leadership leaves out one of the council members who actually helped start the fight.
That seems like somebody worth mentioning.
And I have another confession.
In January I singled out Christina Morales, writing that she “seems independent.”
Six months later, the Chronicle singled her out too.
Now my drum is getting louder.
I wasn’t predicting the future.
I was watching the politicians.
There is a difference.
The Chronicle’s question today is whether Whitmire’s balancing act over ICE could become a political liability.
My question six months ago was harsher:
At what point does explaining why you cannot fight become indistinguishable from refusing to fight?
And there is another question Latino voters eventually have to answer.
What good is having Latino elected officials if, when the Latino community is frightened and under pressure, protecting political relationships becomes more important than making those relationships uncomfortable?
Not every Latino politician deserves that criticism.
Alejandra Salinas has demonstrated that.
Christina Morales increasingly appears willing to demonstrate it.
Others can decide for themselves which side of the line they are standing on.
As for me, I think I have earned one morning of shameless self-congratulation.
So forgive me while I sit here with my coffee.
Somewhere, Santiago is probably looking up at me thinking:
He isn’t as smart as he thinks he is.
Maybe not.
But on January 20, I wasn’t wrong.