Colony Ridge, Texas, immigration operation: 118 arrested, ICE says
Colony Ridge immigration operation: State, federal law enforcement involved
State and federal law enforcement are targeting the Colony Ridge Subdivision for criminals and illegal immigrants. FOX 26 Reporter Jade Flury has more. (NOTE: This report was from Monday, Feb. 24.)
HOUSTON - 118 people were arrested in and around Colony Ridge, Texas, during an immigration operation focused in the community north of Houston on Monday, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Dozens of arrests in Colony Ridge
The backstory:
On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced on X that Texas DPS troopers and special agents were assisting Homeland Security Investigations with an operation in Colony Ridge targeting "criminals & illegal immigrants."
Gov. Abbott also said he had been working with President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan on it "for months".
What we know:
FOX News national correspondent Brooke Taylor spoke with Homan, who said that some of the migrants were arrested at worksite operations and already had open warrants. Others were arrested during traffic stops.
ICE said that the charges and convictions for those arrested include criminal sexual conduct, homicide, theft, negligent manslaughter, child sexual abuse, crimes of moral turpitude, weapons offenses and drug offenses.
Taylor reports that one man who was arrested had been deported three times and had a criminal arrest warrant for alleged repeated sexual abuse of a minor, per U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
ICE says during the operation Texas DPS received a call about a homicide in the city. Law enforcement apprehended 34-year-old Luis Perez, who they identified as an MS-13 gang member who had previously been deported from the United States as a murder suspect.
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What we don't know:
It's also unclear how many did or didn't have warrants out for their arrests. Their identities have not been released.
What they're saying:
The operation prompted a press conference from the immigrant-led civil rights organization FIEL on Monday.
"Just as we got here about an hour and a half ago, we saw well over a dozen traffic stops happening along this main road," said Cesar Espinoza, the executive director for FIEL Houston. "It seems like they’re just pulling people over and then escalating that from there."
In a statement announce the press conference Monday, he also said, "We stand in solidarity with our community by informing them of their rights and denouncing the wave of terror directed at the Colony Ridge communities by the governor. We will be in front of Cottonwood School to inform the press about the fear these families experience when returning home from work or school, only to find that a loved one is missing."
"There were police at the Family Dollar, and they were taking some people. And my mom, she got scared, and she was like, ‘we don’t want our family to be like them," said one Colony Ridge resident, who didn't want to be shown on camera.
A representative of Family Dollar said, "No Family Dollar customers or employees were detained during the visit."
Colony Ridge controversy
The backstory:
FOX 26 reported on Colony Ridge in 2023, due to the controversy surrounding the community of 40,000. There were claims that the neighborhood had a large population of undocumented immigrants, and some lawmakers even claimed Mexican drug cartels controlled parts of it. Gov. Abbott called on lawmakers to investigate.
Trey Harris, co-owner of Colony Ridge, told FOX 26 at the time that lawmakers were "misinformed" and said most of the property owners were U.S. citizens.
"A very small percentage of our customers, that may perhaps be undocumented, and they're status here is questionable," he said.
Harris said he was giving low-income families an opportunity to be homeowners – he sells the property and the buyer builds the home.
Harris told FOX 26 in 2023 that he required two forms of ID, a down payment usually around $500, and a good U.S. address. He said he doesn't ask for a social security number, which he said isn't required by law.
As reported by the Texas Tribune in 2024, Texas Attorney General Ken Patxon sued the developers of Colony Ridge, accusing them of deceptive sales, marketing and lending practices. Developer John Harris said there was no merit to the allegations.
Dig deeper:
The Source: The information in this article is from FOX News correspondent Brooke Taylor who spoke with Tom Homan, Governor Greg Abbott on X, previous reporting and witness information.