Colony Ridge Targeted in Trump Deportation Push

By Gloria Way and Benjamin Wermund, Austin Bureau, The Houston Chronicle

  Colony Ridge is a collection of subdivisions that cover about 33,000 acres of land 30 miles north of Houston. Those neighborhoods drew the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott and the Republican-controlled Legislature after claims they are a magnet for undocumented immigrants and overrun by crime. It has been alleged that the developers intentionally lured illegal immigrants with the “American dream of home ownership” to purchase property within Colony Ridge with no credit checks, no down payments, and no social security. The developers would “finance” the property, foreclose on the property when the buyer could not pay, and resell the property. It has been alleged that tracts of property have been foreclosed on and resold numerous times making lots of money for the developer.

  Abbott said the operation is going after “criminals & illegal immigrants” in the sprawling development that is home to many low-income and immigrant families. Abbott wrote he had worked with Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, on the operation “for months.” 

“Colony Ridge is being targeted today,” Abbott wrote in a post on the social media site X. “Texas DPS Troopers & Special Agents are assisting Homeland Security Investigations, with an operation in Colony Ridge this morning.”

  A Department of Public Safety sergeant, however, said the agency was working the same operation that it has been for two years, focused on traffic violations and backing up local law enforcement. He said troopers in the area were not corralling people who might be in the country without authorization. “We’re running a task force out here, just like we’ve been doing for two years now,” said Sgt. Erik Burse, of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “I guess the governor put out a tweet or something. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing.” If they encounter anything immigration-related, they turn that over to federal authorities. He said he couldn’t give specific numbers on how many deputies were part of the task force, but said that you could count the number on both hands.

  Local officials and residents have in recent years cast Colony Ridge as a hotbed of cartel activity, even as if there is allegedly no “evidence” of such. Certain outlets, meanwhile, spent months pushing anti-immigrant conspiracies about the development in 2023.  Also that year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against several of the development’s affiliate companies, alleging they operated a “bait and switch” land sales scheme that targeted tens of thousands of Latinos with predatory loans. Colony Ridge’s CEO and president called the lawsuit “outrageous and inflammatory” in a statement at the time.

  Monday’s operation comes as the governor has been personally responding in recent weeks to  accounts on X asking if the state was preparing to go after Colony Ridge after Trump took office. When asked by one account if the state was “fixing this haven for illegal immigrants,” Abbott responded: “Yep. Both the Feds & DPS are working on it.”