Thousands Attend a Peaceful No Kings Protest in Houston

An estimated 7,000 protesters gathered for a No Kings rally at Houston City Hall on Saturday, peacefully condemning President Donald Trump and his policies. No arrests were reported at press time, but several people were treated for heat exhaustion and dehydration at the sunny afternoon event. 

The Houston rally was one of more than 2,700 across the country, the second time such gatherings have been organized this year — and a lot has happened since the last No Kings event in June. 

President Trump influenced Texas Republicans to draw new redistricting maps in an effort to add five red seats to the U.S. Congress. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have ramped up. The murder of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah last month escalated partisan infighting and ignited a nationwide debate on free speech. 

And the federal government shutdown earlier this month left millions of Americans worried that they won’t be able to afford healthcare in the near future. 

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, took the stage as the four-hour protest kicked off at 2 p.m., accusing Trump and his administration of “wreaking havoc” on the country. 

“If you continue to allow them to make you feel hopeless, they will win,” Crockett said. “Today is about showing the rest of the world who we are. We are bigger and badder than the bullshit that is coming out of D.C. We know what it is to love this country. We know what it is to say that we’re patriots.”

“We know what it is to love and honor our Constitution,” she added. “And we know what lawlessness looks like. Lawlessness looks like ICE going and disappearing people. Please continue to fight. Don’t just show up at the rallies. Show up at City Hall. Show up at the school board, and make sure you show up at the polls and vote.” 

Lisa Combest, dressed as a unicorn, and Lone Star College history professor Todd Rainer attended to “stand up to this regime.”

“We want to have a peaceful protest to show people that, one, the left is not radical and violent, and two, that we are not going to let this happen to us,” Combest said. “I believe what they’re doing with presidential powers is obscene and an offense to the Constitution.”

Rainer said he studies repressive military regimes and believes that the Constitution is being devalued by the current presidential administration. 

“This country has forgotten our own history, the history of World War II and the lessons that we learned about facism,” he said. “I spent 10 years of my life protecting this country in the Army, the Navy and the Merchant Marines. Donald Trump accusing me of being a hater of America is complete and utter horseshit. The man doesn’t deserve to be a dog catcher.” 

Neil Aquino, founder of the Houston Democracy Project and a speaker at Saturday’s rally, said the “demands and attacks from Washington and Austin will only get worse.”

“Houstonians need to grasp that no level of government will aggressively fight for our civil rights and freedom,” he said. “Protests will often be over-policed on our own Houston taxpayer dime. When we oppose Trump, we’ll be called Antifa and terrorists and the elected officials in our Democratic-voting, diverse city will mostly be [missing in action]. There is nothing ICE can do that will be bad enough for the city to stand up for people. We are on our own.”

A criticism of the No Kings movement from Trump’s MAGA supporters is that the protesters don’t have clear messaging; they just don’t like the President. But at Saturday’s event and at the one in June, attendees held signs with specific complaints about Trump’s tariffs, immigration policies and cuts to healthcare and FEMA. 

Dozens of Houston police officers, including those mounted on horseback, patrolled the area around City Hall on Saturday but there did not appear to be National Guard or ICE agents present. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced earlier this week he would deploy National Guard troops to a No Kings demonstration in Austin, calling it a planned Antifa (anti-facist) demonstration and garnering a negative response from the city’s mayor Kirk Watson. 

“Texas will deter criminal mischief and work with local law enforcement to arrest anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property,” Abbot said in a press release. 

Watson said he does not condone the militarization of public streets. “Much of what we see out of Washington is to create fear and chaos,” the Austin mayor said on social media. “Unfortunately, our state engages in this, too. We should not play into these politics.”

Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder also pushed back against Abbott, saying the governor was “doing everything he can to suck up to Donald Trump, including taking a page from Trump’s authoritarian playbook, and intimidating people exercising their First Amendment right.

“Our cities are not warzones or military training grounds, and we do not need an unnecessary display of force at the expense of taxpayers on a peaceful protest,” he said. 

Police, firefighters and EMTs at the downtown Houston demonstration spent much of their time tending to overheated participants and handing out cold water bottles. 

A woman who identified herself as “Nara” said she was protesting on behalf of her Hispanic and Vietnamese coworkers at a Houston costume shop who are concerned they could be deported. 

“As with most costume shops, our primary workforce is older, immigrant people with limited English,” she said. “Either [ICE hasn’t] figured out that they’re there or they’re not interested in targeting us yet, but most of the people I work with are targets. I work with a woman who has a young daughter and she was born here but she says that doesn’t matter to [ICE}. And at what point do they decide that being Jewish means I’m not white either? I would care even if I was the whitest person on earth.” 

Criticism of the Houston Police Department’s relationship with ICE escalated earlier this week when Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant rights group FIEL, was removed from a city council meeting after accusing the mayor and police chief of lying about how they handled an incident with a 15-year-old boy with autism. 

The teen, Emanuel Gonzalez Garcia, ended up in federal custody on October 5, after wandering off from his mother while they were selling fruit at an intersection. 

Espinosa said HPD passed off Garcia to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a branch of the federal health department that offers services for “unaccompanied alien children,” according to its website, and implied that minimal effort was made to reunite Emanuel with his family. 

Police Chief Noe Diaz said Emanuel’s mother contacted police five hours after he went missing. When authorities located the child, he claimed to be homeless and from another country, Diaz said during a council meeting. 

“Once we were not able to confirm the identity provided by the juvenile on scene and to find an acceptable party to leave them with for their safety, after exhausting all options, we contacted CPS,” Diaz said. 

CPS said they couldn’t hold the child if he was from another country and could not provide contact information for any family members, so Emanuel was then transported to a federal facility. 

Mayor John Whitmire addressed the matter publicly, saying, “HPD officers located the young man and spent over four hours working to reunite him with his family. When that was not possible, he was taken to Child Protective Services. Because he had no identification and could not give any names or information of family he was transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement.” 

Whitmire has been accused of directing city police to cooperate with ICE, which he says he has not. By law, police who encounter a person with an outstanding warrant must notify the agency that issued it. 

Houstonians at Saturday’s gathering said they don’t trust that local police are not cooperating with ICE despite Whitmire’s repeated explanation that his officers are just following the law. Several people at the No Kings rally were circulating a petition to recall the mayor. 

The No Kings movement is supported by chapters of Indivisible, 50501, the American Federation of Teachers and the ACLU. Organizers say they are committed to nonviolent protest and community safety, providing their own security in addition to local police.  

Nara said she has been attending peaceful protests since she was a child and it’s an important right in a democratic society. 

“I think the most we ever accomplish by doing this is showing how many people object to what’s happening,” she said. 

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