Houston, State of Texas React to Trump’s Executive Orders with Mixed Reviews

HOUSTON -- A series of executive orders aimed at curbing illegal immigration was signed by President Donald Trump Wednesday at the Department of Homeland Security, and drew both praise and sharp condemnation from representatives in Texas and in the Houston area.

Trump’s executive orders authorized the building of the widely publicized wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, placed a hold on immigrants from Muslim countries, and initiated a crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, which have policies considered protective of illegal immigrants, in defiance of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, and would target those cities by withholding federal funding, related to law enforcement grants.

Often the grant funding from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security will pay for equipment purchases such as bulletproof vests, drones or unmanned aerial surveillance programs, automated license plate readers, or training with other state or federal law enforcement agencies.

In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told Fox News that he’d seek legislation that would remove Texas sheriffs from elected office if they failed to cooperate with federal Immigration & Customs Enforcement officials in detaining people thought to be undocumented immigrants for deportation. His statement was aimed specifically at Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who said her office would not honor across-the-board ICE detainments.

Austin City Councilman Greg Casar took issue with Abbott’s threat to remove Hernandez from office, referring to the threats as reckless.

“My own district here is well over a third non-citizen, and our police department has worked very hard to build a collaborative and trusting relationship with our immigrant community, and that is critical to for our public safety,” Casar said.

Numerous cities are listed or classified as sanctuary cities, according to the Ohio Jobs & Justice PAC, including Austin and Travis County in Central Texas.

Houston is also on that list, along with Katy, Port Arthur, and Baytown in the Greater Houston region.

During a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner dismissed the anticipated adverse effects of Trump’s executive order aimed at sanctuary cities, because, Turner said, Houston isn’t a sanctuary city.

“Houston is a welcoming city where one in four Houstonians is foreign-born,” Turner said. “We don’t profile people because of their status, or question whether or not they are here legally. We don’t do that, and that is pursuant to the United States Supreme Court dictates, so we follow the rules and regulations in that regard. We don’t do profiling and we are not going to start.”

Meanwhile, the news that the wall between Mexico and the United States was closer to being a reality, and not just election season rhetoric by Trump, was met with mixed emotions in Texas and in the Houston area.

During a press conference Thursday in Richmond, Texas, Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls cheered the move by Trump, following the arrest of 17 Colombian nationals on burglary charges who were all in the U.S. illegally.

“Obviously our southern border is not secure, because these people keep coming back,” Nehls said. “It’s the federal government’s responsibility to secure our border. It’s not the federal government’s inability to secure our borders, it’s their unwillingness to secure our borders, and quite honestly, I think it’s shameful they aren’t doing everything they possibly can to protect the American people.”

Image: Claudia A. De a Garza/Flickr