COLONY RIDGE UNDER ASSAULT BY THE FEDS

Feds target “criminals and illegal immigrants” in Houston-area development, Abbott says

The Colony Ridge development has long been under scrutiny from conservative lawmakers, think tanks and influencers who cast it as a hotbed for undocumented immigrants and cartel crime.

 

By Alejandro Serrano

 

The Texas Tribune

Feb. 24, 2025

 

 

The Colony Ridge development in New Caney on Oct. 9, 2023. Gov. Greg Abbott announced that federal and state law enforcement would conduct and operation in the development targeting "criminal and illegal immigrants." 

 

Federal immigration authorities on Monday planned to conduct a targeted operation on "criminals & illegal immigrants" in a housing development outside of Houston that’s been under scrutiny from conservative lawmakers and media for selling land to undocumented people, Gov. Greg Abbott said.

By Monday afternoon, it remained unclear whether anyone had been arrested, as nearly half a dozen law enforcement and government agencies were silent on details.

Abbott initially said in a social media post that he had worked with President Donald Trump's immigration adviser, Tom Homan, “for months” to target Colony Ridge, a majority Latino 33,000-acre development some 30 miles outside of the nation’s fourth-largest city in neighboring Liberty County. Conservative influencers, outlets, think tanks and Texas lawmakers had dubbed it as a safe haven for undocumented people, often painting it as a cartel-run crime hub.

“The operation began hours before my post. Long before my post anyone in the area would’ve known about the operation,” Abbott said, after hinting at an imminent raid for weeks in other posts. One of the developers is a major campaign donor to Abbott.

Spokespersons for Abbott referred questions about the operation to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not respond to emails seeking information. The Texas Department of Public Safety, whose troopers were assisting federal agents, referred an initial inquiry to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which did not respond to emails.

DPS did not answer follow-up questions about a sergeant's suggestion to the Houston Chronicle that Monday's operations were typical for state police in the area.

“We’re running a task force out here, just like we’ve been doing for two years now,” DPS Sgt. Erik Burse told the newspaper. “I guess the governor put out a tweet or something. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing.”

Any widespread arrests targeting residents of Colony Ridge for their immigration status would be among the most aggressive law enforcement actions to date since the development became right-wing lightning rod in 2023.

As calls for action mounted in 2023, Abbott directed the state Legislature to address the development during special sessions. But lawmakers showed little appetite to do much of anything after testimony from Liberty County officials and the developer disputed claims circulating in right-wing circles.

“Why are we even here doing this?" one state lawmaker questioned during a hearing.

But a few months later, the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in with enforcement when it sued the developers in December 2023 for allegedly running a predatory lending scheme that preyed on Latino homebuyers. The Department accused the developer of luring Latino homebuyers with targeted Spanish ads and blitzing them with high-pressure sales tactics into high-interest seller-financed mortgages that many failed to pay before losing their homes, land and savings. The developer allegedly repeated the process, sometimes selling the same piece of land to a series of buyers during the four-year period reviewed by the Justice Department, according to the lawsuit.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton later sued the developers as well over similar accusations despite having received complaints from residents for years about the developer’s lending practices.

Both lawsuits remain pending in federal court.

The developers have denied any wrongdoing. They did not immediately comment through a spokesperson on Monday. In previous statements, they have defended their business generally as offering an opportunity for people to own land.

“Just from knowing my customers and leading this business, the people that are in this neighborhood, creating their homes — I look up to them,” John Harris said last year in his first interview since the DOJ filed its lawsuit. “They’re building more with less than 99% of Americans.”

Sisters SuEllen and Keilah Sanchez were once Colony Ridge customers before they turned to raising awareness about the allegations against the developers. The prospect of raids in Colony Ridge was “bittersweet,” they wrote in a statement.

“While we are relieved that Gov. Greg Abbott is finally addressing the serious issues in the area, we cannot ignore the fact that many residents moved to Colony Ridge after being misled by marketing that promised them the American Dream,” the sisters said. “These individuals, many of whom are hardworking immigrants, have been living in substandard conditions, facing extreme challenges such as severe flooding, raw sewage, overcrowded schools, and the growing presence of fentanyl.”

They added: “Yet, their voices have largely been unheard. The true story of Colony Ridge is not just about policy — it’s about thousands of families trapped in a cycle of broken promises and dangerous living conditions. As attention is finally drawn to this crisis, we must ensure that the real experiences of these residents are not ignored.”

Even the suggestion of raids is likely to cause wide panic in the community.

Cesar Espinosa, the director of Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha, an immigrant-led civil rights organization in Houston, drove around the development Monday morning while streaming on Facebook live. As he drove around, a DPS trooper pulled him over for allegedly not having a front license plate even though he did, Espinosa said.

“I must not know how to do my job,” the trooper told him after seeing the plates on the vehicle, Espinosa said during a news conference. DPS did not respond to a request for comment about the incident, part of which Espinosa live-streamed.

“Who knows what else could have happened,” Espinosa said. “That’s the fear that we have in a lot of these communities.”

The governor's post also appeared to catch local government officials by surprise.

“Would’ve been nice if the government let us know,” Liberty County Judge Jay Knight told the Houston Landing. “I wasn’t informed about anything. It’s news to me.”

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Texas governor announces crackdown on massive illegal immigrant community near Houston

Abbott says authorities 'targeting criminals & illegal immigrants.'

 

By Peter Pinedo  

 

Fox News

Feb 25, 2025

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced that "Colony Ridge is being targeted today."

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that state authorities working with the Department of Homeland Security are conducting an immigration and law enforcement operation in Colony Ridge, a huge development known for attracting masses of illegal immigrants.

"Colony Ridge is being targeted today," Abbott, a Republican, announced on X on Monday.

Colony Ridge, which is less than an hour's drive from Texas’ biggest city, Houston, is a housing development that advertises in Spanish for quality land for low down payments. There are believed to be thousands of illegal immigrants living in the community, which also reportedly has significant cartel activity and very little police presence.

The governor said Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) troopers and special agents were cooperating with Homeland Security Investigations in an operation in Colony Ridge this morning, "targeting criminals & illegal immigrants."

Abbott said he has been working on this operation with President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, "for months."

In response to concerns that his post would endanger law enforcement’s operation in Colony Ridge, Abbott said the operation began hours before his post and that "long before my post anyone in the area would’ve known about the operation."

A spokesperson for DHS, however, declined to comment on the operation, citing the need to preserve secrecy about the details of the operations and concerns for the safety of the agents involved.

 

ICE takes illegal immigrant Jorge Carvajal Castrejon, 36, into custody in Houston on Jan. 28, 2025. 

 

Local outlet ABC13 reported that officials at the nearby Liberty County Sheriff’s Office further confirmed that DPS and ICE operations were underway.

Another outlet called The Vindicator reported that at least one local man, Roberto Alfaro, 24, saw "undercover" agents he believed to be from ICE "forcefully" arresting a Mexican national outside his house.

Alfaro told The Vindicator he had never seen anything like the operation underway in Colony Ridge before and that it "feels scary." He mentioned his concern that his mother and father would be deported back to Honduras and El Salvador. He also said he and some others were "chasing" ICE so "we could go behind them and warn others."

 

Tom Homan 

 

The Trump administration has unleashed a slew of immigration enforcement actions since taking office last month, one of the most notable being a string of ICE raids in cities across the country.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, Homan announced that in Trump’s first month in the Oval Office, ICE arrested 21,000 illegal aliens.

"I'm happy with the numbers," he said. "But I'm not going to be satisfied until every criminal alien gang member, every criminal alien, every Tren de Aragua [gang member] is eradicated from this country and [we've] sent their a-- to Gitmo, where they belong."