Overwhelmingly, Harris County voters believe undocumented immigrants who commit violent crimes in the United States should be deported, according to a report released this week by Texas Southern University.
After that, responses to the survey reflect more of a mix of opinions about immigration, public safety, and bail reform in the county.
The 22-page document “Public Perception of Crime, Sentencing, Immigration Enforcement, and Bail Reform in Harris County” was compiled by Texas Southern University political scientist Michael Adams and Rice University political science professor Mark Jones for TSU’s Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center.
A slim majority of Harris County voters say they only want local government entities cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in certain instances.
About 38 percent of surveyed Harris County voters believe that law enforcement in Harris County should always cooperate with federal immigration authorities to deport people; 23 percent believe that they should never cooperate. Thirty-nine percent say cooperation should occur sometimes.
But 95 percent of respondents believe immigrants living in the country illegally who commit violent crimes should be deported. Sixty percent believe those who commit non-violent property crimes should be deported, and 20 percent believe those who commit minor traffic offenses should be deported, according to the report.
The survey’s large sample set of 1,600 respondents included a diverse population, but everyone polled is a registered voter, therefore unlikely to be directly affected by immigration issues, Jones said.
“There’s near-unanimous consensus among Harris County residents that immigrants who are in the country illegally who commit violent crimes should be deported,” he said. “There starts to be a little more dissonance if it’s a property crime. What the data suggests is about one in four Harris County residents is vehemently opposed to any HPD co-op or collaboration with ICE. About three-quarters believe that at least some of the time, HPD and Harris County Sheriff’s Office should be cooperating with ICE.”
The survey was conducted between June 24 and July 3 during a time when surprise ICE raids were being conducted at Houston immigration courts and shortly after the widely attended June 14 “No Kings” protest at Houston City Hall, where thousands of people spoke out against federal immigration policies.
ICE officials announced in May that they “arrested 422 illegal aliens, including 296 criminal aliens, and deported 528 aliens during a seven-day operation focused on bolstering public safety in the Houston area.” The announcement, and the language used in it, specifically the term “illegal aliens,” was not well-received by numerous advocacy groups.
Local leaders have faced backlash for “allowing” ICE into the community but say they don’t have the authority to go against President Donald Trump’s policies, even if they don’t like them.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire has said that the police force he oversees is required by law to pass information along to the appropriate agency when they run a person’s identification and find a warrant. Whitmire has taken issue with the media characterizing this as “cooperating” or “collaborating” with ICE; rather, he says, he is following the law.
But he’s now facing admonishment from the Harris County Democratic Party for, among other things, his perceived support of Trump’s immigration policies.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who came to the United States from Colombia as a teenager and got her citizenship at age 22, explained on the Houston Matters radio show July 2 that she has a “limited ability” to stand in the way of what she believes is illegal enforcement.
Senate Bill 8, which passed in the recent Texas legislative session, mandates county sheriff’s departments to work closely with ICE, the judge acknowledged.
“ICE is in the jail,” Hidalgo said. “That’s been happening for a long time. We did look into — when I first came into office seven years ago — whether that was totally necessary. It turns out it is because if we don’t agree to that, we lose vital funding for really important programs against domestic violence, for example, just crucial things. That’s the way they put our backs against the wall.”
Officers are able to use discretion when an undocumented person reports a crime, Hidalgo said.
“If the intent is to keep the community safer, and everybody knows the vast, vast majority of migrants are simply here contributing, we don’t want to create a disincentive for them to report crimes,” she said. “For that reason, it will be smart for these law enforcement officers to deprioritize that kind of behavior. Frankly, the fear is already there.”
Harris County Crime
A key takeaway from the survey is that a majority of Harris County residents don’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods, Jones said.
Less than half of survey respondents said they felt “very safe when outside and alone in their neighborhood during the day,” and 22 percent felt safe under the same circumstances at night. Most were concerned about crime affecting them or a member of their family.
“That’s a troubling finding,” Jones said. “At the same time, they believe that Harris County judges are too lenient in their sentencing except in regard to drug crimes.”
About 64 percent of those surveyed believe crime has increased over the past year.
“There’s increasing skepticism of many crime reporting datasets because there’s a growing belief that some crimes are not reported, especially car break-ins and petty vandalism,” Jones said. “From a political perspective as well as a societal perspective, perception becomes reality. That is, if people perceive there to be a crime problem, there is a crime problem.”
Violent crime reports did increase in Houston by about 4 percent from 2023 to 2024, according to Houston Public Media, but were still lower than in 2020. Some of the higher numbers can be attributed to more reporting and investigations of human trafficking, law enforcement officials said in February.
Slightly more than half of the survey respondents said there are too few police officers patrolling their neighborhoods, and 63 percent said Harris County judges are not tough enough on criminals. Seventy-six percent of respondents said they believe the amount of prison time and other punishments given to people convicted of violent crimes in Harris County is too lenient.
Sean Teare took over the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in January. Since then, more than 342 people with mental health disorders have been diverted into treatment instead of jail, contributing to a 9.5 percent decrease in the jail population.
More than 230 cases have been tried so far this year, including 145 felonies, the DA’s office reported earlier this month. Teare has prosecuted two death penalty cases since he took office and secured death convictions for Xavier Davis and Oscar Rosales.
Bail Reform
The matter of whether those accused of violent crimes should have the opportunity to post bond and be released while awaiting trial was also covered in the survey.
An overwhelming 93 percent of respondents support Texas Senate Joint Resolution 5, which, if approved by voters in November, would allow judges to deny bail to violent offenders.
Senate Joint Resolution 1, which died in the Texas House during the most recent legislative session, would have required judges to deny bail to immigrants in the country illegally who are charged with a violent crime. About 86 percent of those surveyed supported this resolution.
The survey results on race were unsettling but not particularly surprising, Jones said. Most of those who responded believe that low-income people and Black people are treated worse than others when convicted of similar crimes.
“That’s an important finding, that justice is not blind in Harris County,” Jones said.
The survey, Jones said, provides candidates running for office and those already holding elected seats with information that reflects the actual population rather than the opinions of “a vocal, intense minority, who are often the ones who are heard the most.”
“The advantage of the survey is that it gives you a much better perception of what the actual population thinks as opposed to an intense, motivated, and, at times, interested party,” he said.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
