U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 646 allegedly undocumented immigrants during a one-week operation near Houston, federal officials said on Monday, most of whom allegedly were criminals.
Five hundred forty three of the people arrested during the “targeted enforcement operation” had been either convicted of or charged with a crime, ICE announced in a statement on Monday. Another seven allegedly were gang members.
Though ICE’s announcement only identifies the operation as occurring “in the Houston area” between Feb. 23 and March 2, the dates align with those announced by Gov. Greg Abbott on social media for “targeted” federal raids in Colony Ridge.
Colony Ridge, a sprawling, 33,000-acre collection of subdivisions about 30 miles northeast of downtown Houston, has seen an influx of at least 40,000 new residents in the past decade.
“These collective efforts have made our local communities significantly safer and strengthened our national security and border security,” said ICE’s Chad Plantz, a special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Houston, in a prepared statement.
The 543 people arrested during the operation had been previously charged with or convicted of the following crimes:
- Aggravated felonies such as homicide, aggravated assault or domestic violence: 140 people.
- Driving while intoxicated: 93 people.
- Narcotics offenses including trafficking or possession of a controlled substance: 52 people.
- Property crimes such as burglary or theft: 51 people.
- Illegal firearms offenses, including possession of a firearm as an undocumented immigrant or aggravated assault with a firearm: 38 people.
- Sex offenses such as rape or possession of child pornography: 34 people.
Border officials also arrested seven people who allegedly were gang members as part of the operation. Monday’s announcement did not explain how investigators knew that they were in a gang.
Colony Ridge was the target of numerous viral right-wing conspiracy theories in recent years alleging that it was a haven for drugs and violent crime, claims repeated and amplified by Republican leaders in Texas, including Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
But local and state officials in the development, and the Republican brothers who own it, have refuted those claims with data, even while acknowledging that its small tax base leaves it with very little money to hire police officers to patrol its 60-square mile area.
At the end of 2023, the Department of Justice sued the developers for allegedly targeting Latinos with social media ads, then using predatory loans with high interest rates to trap them. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton followed suit, literally, this time last year, suing them for fraud and deceptive marketing.
Other federal and state agencies participated in the ICE operation, including the Texas Department of Public Safety; the FBI; the Drug Enforcement Administration; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, per the release, as well as “several other state and local law enforcement agencies.”
