During the week of April 17, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents made 95 arrests during a five-day sweep in Houston. Most of those arrested had prior criminal convictions. Some did not. The focus of such occasional raids seems to primarily focus on dangerous criminals, but who draws that line?

On this edition of Houston Matters, we learn how such sweeps from Bret Bradford, director of field enforcement and removal for ICE, and we find out how his agency assesses whether or not to arrest someone. Then we learn about current policies regarding the prosecution of criminal aliens from immigration attorney Amber M. Gracia, director of litigation for the Quan Law Group.

Also this hour…

Targeting Fake News Online

In recent months, Google and Facebook have each announced efforts to address the rise of false news reports shared — or wrongly pointed to — by their companies’ algorithms. But how much responsibility should free web browsers or social media sites have for how their products are used? How does “fake news” get proliferated so widely? To discuss, we chat with Lee Hutchinson of Ars Technica.

Rice Education Research Grant

Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research has received a nearly $11 million, seven-year grant to support the expansion of the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC). According to Rice, since 2011, HERC has brought together Rice education researchers with HISD brass to improve the quality of education in the school district. We examine what HERC has accomplished in the past six years with its director, Dr. Ruth Lopez Turley. And, between adding more staff and extending its reach beyond HISD to other school districts, what does HERC aim to accomplish with this grant?

Tennis Performs in Studio

Married couple Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley perform as the duo Tennis, and they never really intended to pursue music as a career. Writing and performing in their hometown of Denver was more of a hobby – until people took notice and coerced the couple into taking things seriously.

Their fourth album, called Yours Conditionally, was released in March. Before a recent tour stop at White Oak Music Hall, Tennis visited our Geary Performance Studio to record two songs off the album, In the Morning I’ll Be Better and Modern Woman, for an upcoming edition of Skyline Sessions on Houston Public Media, TV 8.

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