Following two consecutive weeks of protests over a controversial federal public safety grant, Mayor John Whitmire announced Monday that Houston is withdrawing its application for the Model Cities Initiative.
“In the effort to ensure the application was submitted on time, staff prematurely submitted it before the required council approval was secured,” Whitmire said in an emailed statement. “Due to that error and current lack of clarification on the program’s guidelines, the City of Houston is withdrawing its application and will not pursue the Model Cities Initiative grant.”
Critics blasted the proposal, which would have dedicated funds toward hiring more officers and purchasing surveillance equipment and technology like drones, license plate readers and body-worn cameras.
The cities that take the money agree to prioritize documented citizens. For example, one clause of the agreement states that victim-centered services such as medical care, temporary housing, transportation and employment assistance may be covered by the grant funds for “American victims of crime.”
The purpose of the grant, outlined in a 21-page description issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, is to “make America safe again.”
“Policies that have weakened and demoralized law enforcement, limited the prosecution of crimes, and de-emphasized holding criminals accountable have resulted in a climate of fear and instability for law-abiding Americans,” the grant proposal states.
“Recent surges of federal law enforcement in cities like Memphis, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C., have demonstrated the successes that the DOJ and the Trump Administration have had when resources are laser-focused on providing cities with the tools they need to reduce violence, crime, and disorder.”
Houston Democracy Project founder Neil Aquino said during a public comment session last week that the grant wouldn’t make the city safer. “There is always some reason for more cops, surveillance and citing peaceful pro-democracy protestors as the reason for unlimited HPD overtime,” Aquino says.
Aquino and the Houston Progressive Caucus issued a statement last week that said, “Applying for this grant and accepting this tainted money from Trump’s DOJ would formally connect the City of Houston and HPD to Trump’s far-right agenda.”
“This would require HPD alignment with federal immigration enforcement efforts, demand prioritization of ‘American’ children and ‘American’ victims of sex trafficking over others, and even federal intervention of policies regarding loitering. We should not be inviting Trump’s DOJ to define how Houston is policed,” the statement reads.
The Model Cities Initiative was on a September 22 council agenda for consideration but the item was pulled at the last minute. Whitmire said at the time that he was looking into the grant as a public safety measure to reduce homelessness because he was asked by private donors to seek additional revenue sources.
“The foundations were very concerned that we were not seeking other sources,” he said. “To reassure them that we were doing our part in seeking third-party funding, we put the Model Cities application on the agenda. This was a homeless initiative. We have convinced all the stakeholders that we are moving in the right direction so we don’t need any kind of affirmation on the agenda today. We don’t enforce immigration. We have an ordinance that guides us.”
Even though the grant wasn’t on last week’s council agenda, several residents showed up during a three-hour public comment session to express concerns about the Model Cities Initiative and what it would look like for immigrant communities if the city takes its cooperation with ICE a step further.
Ronaldo Salgado, whose father, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, was fatally shot by an ICE agent on Canal Street in July, told the council, “It breaks my heart to say this, but, apart from justice, there’s not much that can be done for my dad. He’s no longer here, but a lot can be done for the thousands of immigrant families who are still living in fear.”
The Model Cities grant will “not make cities safer and will put real lives at risk,” Salgado said. “If ICE asks HPD to assist with a raid, provide perimeter support, share information or participate in an operation like the one that killed my dad, can the city refuse without risking this funding? What would this mean for the thousands of immigrants and their families who are already afraid to call the police for help?”
Council Member Alejandra Salinas thanked Salgado for his comments and said she agrees, “there is no amount of money that is worth selling the right to take advantage of our immigrant communities.”
“I hope to God the administration doesn’t bring this back,” she said.
HPD’s relationship with ICE has been heavily criticized over the past year. In March, it was revealed that some officers had “delivered” undocumented immigrants whom they encountered on traffic stops to federal agents. The police department issued a directive not to do that, but officers are in some cases waiting up to two hours for federal agents to arrive after the subject of a traffic stop is flagged as undocumented.
HPD officials failed to show up at a Public Safety Committee meeting in August at which Salinas was hoping to question them about a quarterly report showing that HPD’s average rate of monthly calls to ICE more than doubled from the previous quarter. HPD made more than 100 calls to ICE between April and June of this year, according to city documents.
Nineteen Houstonians were turned over to ICE custody in that three-month period. “HPD should be focused on solving crime, not doing the job of ICE,” Salinas told the Houston Press in July.
