A heated confrontation erupted during a Houston City Council meeting on Wednesday morning after remarks by Police Chief Noe Diaz about a case involving a mother separated from her autistic son.
As Mayor John Whitmire was announcing a 20-minute recess, Cesar Espinosa, the executive director of FIEL, a Houston-based immigrant advocacy organization, stood up and began shouting at Chief Diaz, demanding to know why the chief wouldn’t meet with him.
“Why do you lie? Why do you lie? Chief Diaz we’ve been trying to meet with you,” Espinosa shouted. “The child is autistic! Proper care that he deserves, do not lie, do not lie.”
Moments later, the audio feed from the meeting was cut off.
The exchange appeared to be tied to the case of 15-year-old Emmanuel Gonzalez Garcia, a Houston teen with autism who was separated from his mother after being taken into federal custody. Emmanuel disappeared on Oct. 4 while with his mother, who sells fruit on Houston’s northwest side. Police later found him at a McDonald’s near Airline Drive and, after he reportedly said he had no family, contacted federal agencies that placed him in immigration custody.
Advocates say Emmanuel functions cognitively at the level of a 4- or 5-year-old and that he should have never been separated from his mother. He’s currently hospitalized at Texas Children’s Hospital, where he recently underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis. His mother has been allowed limited contact with him since the separation.
City officials have not commented further on the outburst or whether it was connected to the ongoing case.