Immigrant advocates decry ICE arrest outside Houston immigration court
What we know
Cesar Espinosa, Executive Director of the advocacy group, FIEL, said ICE agents were present inside the court building on South Gessner Road on the day of the arrests.
"We have gone inside, and I can confirm ICE agents are inside waiting for people right outside of the master hearing, and near the elevators," Espinosa said.
Immigration attorney Bianca Santorini said she witnessed federal agents detaining immigrants who were waiting for or exiting their court appearances.
"What is very bothersome is that due process is guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution," Santorini said. "Due process does not mean you come here illegally and get to stay," she said. "But it does mean you get that one day in court. That is what we're asking to be respected by this administration."
According to Santorini, one man detained outside the courtroom is from Ecuador and arrived in the United States in 2023. After being processed at the border, he was issued a notice to appear, though that notice was never initially sent to a judge. He later filed an asylum application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. His case was eventually scheduled in court (Jun 9), where the government moved to dismiss, stating they no longer intended to prosecute.
As he exited the courtroom, Santorini said, ICE agents detained him near the elevators.
Advocates say this type of enforcement will discourage individuals from attending immigration hearings, potentially leading to more deportations by default.
FIEL is calling for ICE to halt such detentions, especially for individuals whose cases have been closed or dismissed. Espinosa called the practice "unjust" and "inhumane."
"This is anti-democratic for the court system to say, 'Now you don't have any case,' and for ICE to be sitting right outside waiting for these folks," he said. "We've seen it happen in other places — but we've witnessed it today."
Santorini also raised concerns about the apparent coordination between ICE agents and individuals with knowledge of case outcomes.
"They're being fed the information — 'Hey, this person in the blue shirt with yellow stripes, case dismissed, here less than two years' — they know exactly who to approach," she said.
According to Santorini, ICE agents were in plain clothes. The family of the man detained said that he was transported to a facility in Conroe.
Espinosa questioned the use of public resources, saying, "For four agents to be sitting there the entire day, how much is that costing?"
Attorneys from multiple organizations remained in court throughout the day, assisting immigrants with translation and legal navigation.
In a statement, ICE responded:
"Federal, state, and local law enforcement officials throughout the country routinely engage in enforcement activity at or near courthouses for both criminal and civil matters. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's activities at or near courthouses is wholly consistent with this longstanding law enforcement practice. ICE officers and agents seek to conduct enforcement actions at an alternate location when practicable. However, when no other location is feasible or when the alternate location increases the risk to public safety or the safety of our officers, ICE will seek to effectuate the arrest in the location that is least likely to endanger anyone's safety."
The Source
FOX 26 interviewed advocates and attorneys outside of the courtroom on South Gessner Monday, and received a statement from ICE.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: Count 'em all — Trump has no authority to muck with 2030 Census Bureau count
Not caring about the U.S. Constitution is a regular refrain for President Donald Trump, who now wants to exclude undocumented people from the 2030 census count — a nonstarter as much else is in this bizarro world we now inhabit, promulgated via a screed on his Truth Social platform — is both a terrible idea and certainly a rehash. Trump attempted something similar during his first term in office as the 2020 census closed in, deciding to suddenly include a citizenship question in the count, a move promptly blocked by the courts. Now Trump's trying to go whole hog and exclude the undocumented altogether, in doing so going against the plain language of the Constitution, which unambiguously mandates the count 'of the whole number of persons' in each state. The chief executive certainly seems to care less about the letter of the law and the orders of judges this time around, though these will still slap him down. It's worth noting, though, that even if and when a judge makes the easiest ruling of a career and strikes down any directive to exclude from the census anyone based on citizenship or immigration status, that's not necessarily mission accomplished. Trump and Stephen Miller's all-out campaign of shock and awe and terror against immigrants around the country is designed at least in part to create an environment of fear and concern that will discourage people from participating in all facets of civic and public life, including the mandated decennial count. The Census Bureau itself found that it probably failed to count up to millions of noncitizens, largely because many declined to participate out of a fear that it would put them on the administration's radar and target list. So Trump was able to accomplish some of his aims, even without the directive technically being in place, and that was in an environment less hostile than now. New York infamously lost a House seat because it came up just 89 people short in the 2020 count, which is almost certainly a partial result of Trump's meddling last time around. That extra seat could have made a real difference in a House of Representatives that is so narrowly controlled by the GOP, which itself seems to understand itself as a mere arm of the Trump administration. Neither Trump, nor his top echelon of grifters and ideologues are going to be personally conducting the census count, though. That is left to a small army of temporary public servants overseen by career officials within the Census Bureau, and these folks will hopefully recall that their responsibility is to this important constitutional mandate and not to Trump. The one-time real estate promoter is fully incapable of seeing anything except in terms of monetary or political gain, and probably sees an attempt to exclude the undocumented from the census as good red meat for the base. However, the census guides everything in the United States — not just apportionment and representation in the Congress and the Electoral College, but disaster planning, disease preparedness, allocation of federal resources, and all manner of private-sector uses like demographic data for business development and so on. Ironically, huge chunks of those that would go uncounted under Trump's illegal decree would be in the red states like Florida and Texas, which Trump claims to want to support. The whole idea is pointless, damaging and unconstitutional. _____
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Oklahoma QB John Mateer says he never bet on sports amid scrutiny of Venmo transactions
Oklahoma quarterback John Mateer is denying he has ever bet on sports after screenshots began circulating online showing he made and received Venmo payments with "sports gambling" listed as the reason for the expense. Mateer was at Washington State at the time and the Venmo transactions were with a teammate. After a strong season at Washington State last year, Mateer transferred to Oklahoma and will be the Sooners' starter this year. Another strong season would elevate Mateer's stock in the 2026 NFL draft. But involvement in gambling could throw Mateer's football career into jeopardy, and after the screenshots went viral he claimed the "sports gambling" references in his Venmo payments were jokes. "The allegations that I once participated in sports gambling are false," Mateer wrote on social media. "My previous Venmo descriptions did not accurately portray the transactions in question but were instead inside jokes between me and my friends. I have never bet on sports. I understand the seriousness of the matter but recognize that, taken out of context, those Venmo descriptions suggest otherwise. I can assure my teammates, coaches, and officials at the NCAA that I have not engaged in any sports gambling." Oklahoma released a statement acknowledging the matter. "OU takes any allegations of gambling seriously and works closely with the NCAA in any situation of concern. OU Athletics is unaware of any NCAA investigation and has no reason to believe there is one pending," the statement said. Between Mateer's excellent season at Washington State last year and his importance to Oklahoma this year, he was viewed by many as the most significant transfer in all of college football this offseason. Now he's a significant player for another reason, as the proliferation of sports gambling leads to increased scrutiny on players' activities.
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-US embeds trackers in AI chip shipments to catch diversions to China, sources say
By Fanny Potkin, Karen Freifeld and Jun Yuan Yong SINGAPORE/NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. authorities have secretly placed location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips they see as being at high risk of illegal diversion to China, according to two people with direct knowledge of the previously unreported law enforcement tactic. The measures aim to detect AI chips being diverted to destinations which are under U.S. export restrictions, and apply only to select shipments under investigation, the people said. They show the lengths to which the U.S. has gone to enforce its chip export restrictions on China, even as the Trump administration has sought to relax some curbs on Chinese access to advanced American semiconductors. The trackers can help build cases against people and companies who profit from violating U.S. export controls, said the people who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. Location trackers are a decades-old investigative tool used by U.S. law enforcement agencies to track products subject to export restrictions, such as airplane parts. They have been used to combat the illegal diversion of semiconductors in recent years, one source said. Five other people actively involved in the AI server supply chain say they are aware of the use of the trackers in shipments of servers from manufacturers such as Dell and Super Micro, which include chips from Nvidia and AMD. Those people said the trackers are typically hidden in the packaging of the server shipments. They did not know which parties were involved in installing them and where along the shipping route they were put in. Reuters was not able to determine how often the trackers have been used in chip related investigations or when U.S. authorities started using them to investigate chip smuggling. The U.S. started restricting the sale of advanced chips by Nvidia, AMD and other manufacturers to China in 2022. In one 2024 case described by two of the people involved in the server supply chain, a shipment of Dell servers with Nvidia chips included both large trackers on the shipping boxes and smaller, more discreet devices hidden inside the packaging — and even within the servers themselves. A third person said they had seen images and videos of trackers being removed by other chip resellers from Dell and Super Micro servers. The person said some of the larger trackers were roughly the size of a smartphone. The U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls and enforcement, is typically involved, and Homeland Security Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, may take part too, said the sources. The HSI and FBI both declined to comment. The Commerce Department did not respond to requests for comment. The Chinese foreign ministry did not have immediate comment. Super Micro said in a statement that it does not disclose its 'security practices and policies in place to protect our worldwide operations, partners, and customers.' It declined to comment on any tracking actions by U.S. authorities. Dell said it is 'not aware of a U.S. Government initiative to place trackers in its product shipments.' Nvidia declined to comment, while AMD did not answer a request for comment. CHIP RESTRICTIONS The United States, which dominates the global AI chip supply chain, has sought to limit exports of chips and other technology to China in recent years to restrain its military modernization. It has also put restrictions on the sale of chips to Russia to undercut war efforts against Ukraine. The White House and both houses of Congress have proposed requiring U.S. chip firms to include location verification technology with their chips to prevent them from being diverted to countries where U.S. export regulations restrict sales. China has slammed the U.S. exports curbs as part of a campaign to suppress its rise and criticized the location tracking proposal. Last month, the country's powerful cyberspace regulator summoned Nvidia to a meeting to express its concerns over the risks of its chips containing "backdoors" that would allow remote access or control, which the company has strongly denied. In January, Reuters reported the U.S. had traced organized AI chip smuggling to China via countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE — but it is unclear if tracking devices were involved. The use of trackers by U.S. law enforcement goes back decades. In 1985, Hughes Aircraft shipped equipment subject to U.S. export controls, according to a court decision reviewed by Reuters. Executing a search warrant, the U.S. Customs Service intercepted the crate at a Houston airport and installed a tracking device, the decision noted. U.S. export enforcement agents sometimes install trackers after getting administrative approval. Other times they get a judge to issue a warrant authorizing use of the device, one source said. With a warrant, it is easier to use the information as evidence in a criminal case. A company may be told about the tracker, if they are not a subject of the investigation, and may consent to the government's installation of the trackers, the source added. But the devices can also be installed without their knowledge. People involved in diverting export-controlled chip and server shipments to China said they were aware of the devices. Two of the supply chain sources, who are China-based resellers of export-controlled chips, said they regularly took care to inspect diverted shipments of AI chip servers for the trackers due to the risks of the devices being embedded. An affidavit filed with a U.S Department of Justice complaint regarding the arrests of two Chinese nationals charged with illegally shipping tens of millions of dollars' worth of AI chips to China earlier this month describes one co-conspirator instructing another to check for trackers on Quanta H200 servers, which contain Nvidia chips. It said the English language text was sent by a co-conspirator, whose name was redacted, to one of the defendants, Yang Shiwei. 'Pay attention to see if there is a tracker on it, you must look for it carefully," said the person, who went on to call the Trump administration by an obscenity. "Who knows what they will do." Sign in to access your portfolio
