Sara Rehman, a local teacher, gives a public comment opposing HPD’s collaboration with ICE and non-safety traffic stops at the City Council meeting this Tuesday. Of the 95 people who registered to give comment, nearly 50% signed up to speak on immigration, HPD and ICE collaboration, or non-safety traffic stops. Photo by Paola Hoffman, Houston Newsroom.
Dozens of residents spoke against the Houston Police Department’s collaboration with ICE at the City Council meeting this Tuesday, saying they were worried about public safety.
Speakers at the meeting said they’re concerned about Houston police contacting ICE during traffic stops.
Some added that they want HPD to end all traffic stops that aren’t related to safety, like broken tail lights or tinted windows.
Thomas Sutherland, who came to City Hall to give comment, said he believes ICE’s track record is a risk to immigrant and non-immigrant communities alike.
“They have been violent, they have violated the law, and I don’t think that it is safe for our communities to have that sort of open collaboration between our police department and an agency such as that,” Sutherland said.
Local teacher and artist Sara Rehman also came to speak. Like Sutherland, she said she’s given public comment on these issues several times.
“I’m here to urge City Council to end further ICE collaboration with HPD as well as ending non-safety traffic stops in HPD because both forces are tactics to brutalize Black and Brown people in Houston and it does not keep us safe,” Rehman said.
Records obtained by the Houston Chronicle say that from January to October last year, the HPD called ICE over 100 times. The majority of these calls came from traffic stops.
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