Harris County judge candidate Orlando Sanchez told a crowd of Hispanic men and women on Saturday morning that when they go to the polls on November 3, they should disregard the “R” next to his name.
“I ask you to ignore that R and remember who Orlando Sanchez is,” he said. “I know they are going to call me MAGA Sanchez. My response is: I’m Orlando Sanchez. I’ve never hitched my wagon to any extreme ideals. I am my own man. I am not going to listen to some slogan from some past presidential election.”
The candidate, who was congratulated on social media by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott when he won the March primary and was recently endorsed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, appears to be aware that President Donald Trump’s approval ratings are hovering around 39 percent, according to RealClearPolling. The figure drops to about 27 percent among Latino voters, Reuters reported in June.
Sanchez, a former Harris County treasurer and Hounston City Council member is facing Democratic nominee and former Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer in the November midterms. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo is not seeking a third term.
Sanchez appeared to read the room before addressing members of Greater Houston LULAC over bowls of “the best menudo in town” at El Jardin on Saturday morning. The restaurant is less than two miles from the site at Canal and Wayside where Mexican immigrant Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was fatally shot by an ICE agent on July 7.
“I really didn’t want to discuss the ICE situation because, as you know, the county has absolutely nothing to do with it,” Sanchez said. “Protests are great. Channel 13, Univision, Telemundo, the paper, they’re all going to cover protests. But do you think that a congressman in North Dakota or Chicago, Illinois, is going to see that? The only way to change the law is for us to rise up and vote.”
Congress can change immigration policy “tomorrow, and they haven’t done it since 1986,” he added. “Ronald Reagan said there are good people in this country. If you’re not a criminal, step up and apply for citizenship.”
Sanchez was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1957. His parents fled after the Cuban Revolution and came to Houston when Sanchez was 5 years old. The candidate has run for office 14 times since 1992 and won eight of those elections. He had failed bids for Texas House of Representatives, Houston mayor and controller, but he won a city council seat in 1995 and was re-elected twice before becoming county treasurer in 2006, a seat he held for three terms.
“I fled a communist country because my father said it was not going to be good for his children,” he said. “They started off with socialism. Cuba went 22 hours a day without electricity. Then I fled to Caracas, Venezuela. They sit on the world’s largest reserve of oil and they’re broke [because of] socialism. In my [60-plus] years of living in Houston, Texas, I never thought I would be running against a candidate who is supported by the socialist party.”
Plummer’s position on ICE has been clear since she proposed an ordinance limiting HPD’s interaction with federal agents while serving on city council in 2025. The ordinance never came up for a vote while Plummer was in office but her successor Alejandra Salinas took the reins and is still trying to push through a policy that ensures city police do only the bare minimum when it comes to notifying ICE of a person’s immigration status.
The Texas sanctuary cities law, passed in 2017, compels cooperation with ICE and allows but does not require officers to inquire about immigration status when interacting with the public.
Senate Bill 8, which became effective in January, requires sheriffs in counties with more than 100,000 residents to enter into 287(g) agreements to allow local officers to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez terminated the county’s 287(g) agreement in 2017 but under the new law will have to reinstate it.
Plummer said after Araujo’s death that the law can be enforced “without shredding our Constitution,” noting that the Fourteenth Amendment says the government should not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Plummer also said that commissioners court should fully support District Attorney Sean Teare’s independent investigation into Araujo’s death. On August 6, the county approved a $2.5 million budget for Teare’s probe, to cover personnel costs, overtime and technology upgrades.
Sanchez’s position on ICE hasn’t always been so clear. Immediately after Araujo’s death, the candidate declined to comment, saying it was “far too early” and that investigators should be allowed to do their jobs. He’s also said that he is pro-immigration enforcement but wants accountability when ICE uses deadly force.
In April, however, Sanchez strongly opposed efforts by Harris County to restrict cooperation with ICE, arguing that criminals who are in the country illegally shouldn’t receive special protections.
Araujo had no criminal record, was not armed at the time of his death and, according to federal agents, was not the target of their immigration sting. Immigration and civil rights attorneys confirmed last week that immigration enforcement efforts have escalated recently in Houston, extending to arrests at local airports and increased detention of people who have expired visas and pending asylum cases.
Republican officials have been mostly quiet since Araujo, a Mexican immigrant, was shot in his van in front of his brother and two members of his work crew while driving to a home construction job. ICE agents have said that the longtime Houston resident was uncooperative when they tried to detain him and the shooting was an act of self-defense.
The Texas Rangers are also conducting an independent investigation separate from Teare’s but the two agencies are cooperating with each other. Teare has said that the feds have not been helpful in providing evidence, and there is no dash cam or body-worn camera footage from the July 7 shooting.
Governor Abbott made a brief statement about Araujo’s death while campaigning in Houston on July 15 that “stopping illegal immigration from coming across our border can be achieved without shooting people.’
At Saturday’s event, Sanchez didn’t address the shooting directly but said repeatedly that change can be enacted at the polls in November. He also talked about the importance of government agencies collaborating with each other rather than “fighting” the state and federal government.
Mark Rodriguez, a small business owner in Second Ward, said he came to the breakfast meeting to find out what Sanchez is going to do about ICE “terrorizing immigrant communities.” It’s not lost on voters, Rodriguez said, that the aggressive immigration enforcement is happening under Republican leadership.
“How can you help us?” he said. “I’m not opposed to the Republicans and I’m not for the Democrats, but seeing what’s happening in my community, seeing ICE terrorizing people, taking mothers from their kids at schools … what happened to taking away the criminals?”
Sanchez suggested that those who are concerned about immigration policy contact Congresswoman Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, and express support for her bill called The Dignity Act, which aims to strengthen border security, fund enforcement, and create a legal “dignity status” for long-term undocumented workers without offering a direct path to citizenship
Joaquin Martinez, the Houston City Council member who represents the East End/Magnolia Park neighborhood where Araujo was killed, attended Saturday’s LULAC meeting but did not weigh in on ICE’s escalating tactics in Houston. Martinez is up for re-election in November 2027. Several advocates from District I have said they are encouraging Araujo’s son Ronaldo Salgado to run against Martinez.
At a July 24 hearing of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Martinez said he was concerned that calls for police service have dropped in immigrant-heavy ZIP codes because residents are afraid to interact with law enforcement. “Fear has become a constant in neighborhoods where families have lived for generations,” he said at the time, calling for federal lawmakers to exhaust every possible resource to find the truth about Araujo’s death.
Martinez talked for about 20 minutes about his service to the East End community where he was raised and the state of the city’s finances and infrastructure. The councilman has championed Mayor John Whitmire, who has been under fire recently for the escalating ICE activity in Houston and HPD’s role in turning over undocumented persons to federal immigration authorities.
At Saturday’s meeting, Sergio Lira, president of the Greater LULAC Council, said the organization does not endorse candidates but wanted to give its members an opportunity to hear from those who are on the midterm ballot. Lira called for a moment of silence to honor Araujo and encouraged members to visit the “shrine” set up in his honor at the shooting site.
“Never would I have imagined that happening here in Magnolia Park,” Lira said. “We will give respect and tribute to the family. Our whole community is affected, so we need to continue to support each other and always remember that every life matters.”
