Inside Colony Ridge, where illegal migrants hide and roads lead nowhere

CLEVELAND, Texas – Colony Ridge, the illegal immigrant and cartel-infested Texas housing development raided by the Department of Homeland Security on Monday, is one of the most bizarre places I have ever been, and I get around.

My colleague Elizabeth and I entered Colony Ridge from Plum Grove, where a murder took place even as the feds were arresting about 90 alleged illegal immigrant criminals this week, and almost immediately, the action started.

My head was buried in my phone’s GPS when Elizabeth spotted two Texas Department of Public Safety cruisers and said, "Let’s follow them."

Once inside, Colony Ridge, about 30 miles northeast of Houston, is a bizarre corn maze of dead ends, with haphazard housing spilled across it. It is almost incomprehensible. If you dropped me in the middle of Colony Ridge without a map, I’m not sure that I could make it out.

But we didn’t need a map as we tailed law enforcement, and sure enough, five minutes later, in the midst of the bizarre sprawl, they pulled up to two Liberty County Sheriff’s cruisers and two unmarked cars with lights flashing.

Elizabeth and I walked toward a taco truck with a makeshift bar to find four officers of the Department of Homeland Security police talking to a slight man in a t-shirt that read "Honduras" next to a white van with no license plate.

Trying to assess the situation, I approached one of the sheriffs, notebook and pen in hand. "Excuse me," I began, to which immediately, though without disdain, the officer simply said, "No."

Nobody in any of the branches of law enforcement seemed eager to answer any questions.

The dilemma one is faced with in Colony Ridge is, why? It is a sprawl of non-uniform housing riddled with roads to nowhere, abandoned cars and trucks, some half sunk in the wetlands mud, which is why the Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation.

What is the purpose of this place? Local business owner George Cuellar told me, "It makes no sense." It is hard to draw any conclusion other than the fact this whole massive development was designed to be sold to illegal immigrants. It is an excellent place to hide.

Another business owner nearby, Floyd, who runs Fat Floyd’s BBQ, expressed sympathy for the residents. "Those people work hard," he told us, but added, "of course, you have to get the criminals out."

In the taco truck parking lot, the conversation between the DHS officers and the man, apparently detained, was civil, almost cordial, with a few laughs. Then we saw there was a woman in the van, and two children, the little one cute as a button in his blue and white Honduras soccer jersey.

We wondered if this family was about to be taken away. But after much muddled mingling by law enforcement and a few files checked out, the family was free to go, and the police cars dispersed, deeper into Colony Ridge.