What to know about anti-ICE protests in Houston
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A outside Houston City Hall. Photo: Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Multiple anti-ICE protests are planned around Houston this weekend as fear grows and anger mounts against the agency.
The big picture: Tensions have escalated since federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday — less than a month after the deadly shooting of Renee Good — and after a 5-year-old boy was detained there last week and sent to a family detention center in Texas.
The latest: On Tuesday, dozens of anti-ICE protesters calling on Houston to cut ties with the agency were blocked from speaking during City Council public comment, and the mayor ended the meeting more than two hours early.
Zoom in: Houston hasn't seen the kind of large-scale street sweeps carried out in Democrat-led cities such as Minneapolis, Los Angeles or Chicago, but ICE enforcement here has been extensive, including raids last October and May.
- Between January and mid-October, ICE made over 17,500 arrests across the Houston field office region, which covers Southeast Texas and stretches north toward Waco, per the Deportation Data Project's most recent figures.
- In 2024, ICE made about 10,000 arrests in the Houston field office region.
Zoom out: About 1 in 4 ICE arrests nationwide was happening in Texas and more than half were made at local jails, per a Texas Tribune analysis.
- At least 4,400 detainers — requests from ICE for a local jail to hold a person until the agency can arrest them — were sent to Harris County Jail between January and mid-October 2025, per the Deportation Data Project.
What they're saying: "Everybody is frightened. It has generated an incredible amount of fear. … I've seen a lot of people being taken into custody, but it's not the dramatic shows of force that they've been doing in other cities," immigration lawyer Peter Williamson tells Axios.
- Williamson adds that, in his experience, most undocumented immigrants arrested locally are placed under ICE detainers.
What's next: Several planned protests and vigils, walkouts and bike rides are Thursday through Sunday.