Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez says he’s still assessing all the factors and possible fallout involved in potentially ending the county’s cooperation with the controversial 287(g) program. The program allows local law enforcement to transfer inmates with criminal records who are undocumented immigrants over to federal authorities. Gonzalez campaigned on ending the program, and critics say he hasn’t done that fast enough.

“And look, I understand the frustration of not getting things done the first day or as soon as they would like,” Gonzalez said. “I would like things to move much faster as well. But I also have to work making sure I’m working and communicating with stakeholders tied to this program so I could make sure that I’m carrying out any changes in a thoughtful way.”

On this edition of Houston Matters, the sheriff discusses those and other issues facing his agency with Houston Matters host Craig Cohen.

(Above: Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez in the Houston Matters studio on Feb. 10, 2017. Photo: Michael Hagerty, Houston Public Media)

Also this hour…

Houston’s Economic Pendulum is About to Swing from East to West

If you’ve lived in Greater Houston for any length of time, you’re probably familiar with the idea that there’s an east-west divide here. The east side of town is more blue collar. The west side of town is more white collar. Incomes on the east side are lower than on the west side, and so on.

Well, a local researcher says there’s some truth to that, and to boot – when it comes to the rise and fall of the Houston economy – there’s a pendulum that swings from east to west and back again. And it’s about to swing back to the west, at least according to the University of Houston’s Bill Gilmer. He’s the director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the Bauer College of Business.

At the West Houston Economic Development Summit today (Feb. 10, 2017), he’s delivering his economic forecast for West Houston, and he explains to Houston Matters producer Maggie Martin what he sees coming.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Houston News

A lot can happen in a week. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it downright ugly. When faced with intriguing developments in the week’s news, we turn to our rotating panel of “non-experts” to parse The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of it all. On today’s panel: blogger Fred Goodall, political analyst Vlad Davidiuk, and columnist Lisa Falkenberg.

Houston Matters offers a free daily, downloadable podcast here, on iTunes, Stitcher and various other podcasting apps.