A liberal homeowner sparked outrage after stringing up mannequins that resemble ICE agents hanging from the gallows.
Now the Daily Mail has found that Mark Rodriguez has a long history of similarly twisted political stunts dating back to 2014.
The real estate firm owner past displays include dummies of Donald Trump hanging from a noose and being dismembered by a lawnmower.
Astonishingly, police said they never received a single complaint from neighbors in the working-class Second Ward in east Houston.
Then last month, Rodriguez erected perhaps his most incendiary display yet: Mannequins some claimed looked like immigration agents dangling lifeless from a gallows, a Mexican flag flying above them.
His stunt was the same month as an attack on ICE officers in Dallas that killed two detainees and wounded two others.
The 56-year-old told the Mail his displays were political, but denied the latest stunt depicted ICE agents.
But his social media shows a long history of attacking right-wing figures and immigration policies.
A liberal Texan sparked outrage last month after stringing up mannequins of ICE agents hanging from the gallows
Now the Daily Mail has found that Mark Rodriguez (pictured) has a long history of similarly twisted political stunts dating back to 2014
Rodriguez’s house on the estate in Houston is heavily decorated for Halloween each year
Photos on his Facebook show that, in 2015, a dummy clearly representing Trump was hung from a noose alongside a dark-haired woman in a blazer, jeans and boots.
Another photo showed the Trump mannequin being dragged behind Rodriguez’s pickup truck.
Then in the weeks before the 2016 election, an upgraded Trump dummy, this time with bright yellow hair, a suit and a red tie, was hanging alone.
Rodriguez reused the dummy as a Trump Santa in his Christmas decorations that year, which were almost as elaborate as Halloween.
A year later, he appeared to have the same dummy on the gallows, but with its head covered by a white KKK-style hood.
In 2022 he put up one of his most outrageous anti-Trump displays.
On the lawn was a skeleton with a Trump mask being run over by a ride-on lawnmower driven by a skeletal Biden, his exposed ribs crushes and severed limbs splayed across the grass.
The real estate mogul’s past displays include dummies of Donald Trump hanging from a noose and being dismembered by a lawnmower (pictured)
Photos on his Facebook show that, in 2015, a dummy clearly representing Trump was hung from a noose alongside a dark-haired woman in a blazer, jeans and boots
A year later, he appeared to have the same dummy on the gallows, but with its head covered by a white KKK-style hood
That same year he also displayed a dummy in a wheelchair and MAGA hat representing Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, with a defaced lawn sign planted next to him.
Finally, last year had a twist on the theme as several mannequins were hung from a tree instead of gallows, but it wasn’t clear what they represented.
But it this year’s edition that has sparked the most controversy.
The dummies, which still hang there today, are dressed in black shirts and khaki pants with masks and red caps, with files marked ‘Epstein’ shoved in their pockets.
A third figure in a colorful poncho and wide-brimmed hat stands next to them, as if the hangman, and the gallows flies a Mexican flag.
Photos and videos Rodriguez posted of his decorations quickly went viral and were followed up by local news reports – and intense online backlash.
Trump supporters furiously claimed the dummies were ICE agents and hanging them was not only in bad taste but a ‘hate crime’ inciting violence.
Rodriguez insisted the stunt was not meant to depict ICE agents, and the red hats he picked up for 99c at a dollar store weren’t stand-ins for MAGA gear.
‘By no means do I think they’re ICE agents, I’ve never said that,’ he told the Daily Mail in response to the furor.
‘I mean, I have friends who are ICE agents.
‘The Red Sox wear red hats, the Bloods (street gang) wore red hats… one lady got upset about them and I told her, “would you prefer they were blue hats?”‘
A picture from early on in his decorating for this year’s Halloween shows one of the mannequins scantily dressed
That same year he also displayed a dummy in a wheelchair and MAGA hat representing Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott, with a defaced lawn sign planted next to him
Not all the hanged figures are political – the 2018 and 2020 editions didn’t appear to resemble anyone in particular
But despite claiming the hanged figures were no one in particular, he freely admitted the outrageous display was a commentary on US immigration policy.
‘I don’t think the ICE agents are the problem, they’re just doing their jobs. I think we have a broken immigration system,’ he said.
‘I’m all for good government, but our community lives in fear, and I live in a predominantly Hispanic community.’
He said school enrolments were down and local churches, restaurants, and business were empty because people were too afraid to go out.
Rodriguez also fears for his father, a 92-year-old Korean War veteran, being racially profiled as an undocumented immigrant.
‘Imagine if he was at Home Depot and somebody grabbed him asking him for his passport. He can barely hear, he don’t deserve to get thrown on the ground,’ he said.
Rodriguez, an American of Mexican descent who has lived in the house since he was born, may deny he is trying to stir up violence, but he is clearly man very engaged in politics, with his social media filled with left-wing and anti-Trump memes.
But he explained his views were more moderate than they appeared, and the immigration issue had him riled up.
Rodriguez, an American of Mexican descent who has lived in the house since he was born, may deny he is trying to stir up violence, but he is clearly man very engaged in politics, with his social media filled with left-wing and anti-Trump memes
But he explained his views were more moderate than they appeared, and the immigration issue had him riled up
Weeks before the 2016 election, an upgraded Trump dummy, this time with bright yellow hair, a suit and a red tie, was hanging alone
‘I have some Republican beliefs because I don’t think people should live on the government,’ he said.
‘But I have some Democrat ones too because I don’t think just because you’re a billionaire, you should be able to own four Ferraris and write them off on tax.’
However, he is strongly pro-police, pro-free speech, favors small government, worries about crime, and doesn’t want more affordable housing near him.
Rodriguez even sparred with his liberal friends over a post he made in the wake of Kirk’s murder.
‘Even though I don’t support Trump, it’s wrong to end somebody’s life for expressing how they feel,’ he wrote.
A friend commented: ‘Don’t see you crying for the other people dying in this country in the hands of racists.’
Rodriguez replied: ‘Our country has a lot of problems. I don’t think it’s right if you’re a Republican or a Democrat to take somebody’s life for speaking how they feel.’
The friend then complained that Rodriguez didn’t make a similar post when Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Horton and her husband were murdered by a right-wing terrorist on June 14.
Rodriguez even sparred with his liberal friends over a post he made in the wake of Kirk’s murder
Rodriguez reused the dummy as a Trump Santa in his Christmas decorations that year, which were almost as elaborate as Halloween
Rodriguez goes all out for his Halloween decorating every year
‘I have so many concerns with the way our country’s being run… immigration, gun violence, violence in schools… Look how this administration has divided our country,’ he countered.
Rodriguez said like Kirk, he was just exercising his own First Amendment rights through his Halloween decorations.
‘Even though I don’t believe in what his thoughts were, I don’t think he deserved to lose his life over it,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘I don’t think his wife deserves to be a widow. I don’t think his, kids deserve not to have a father for him speaking how he felt.
‘Some people can fly a Confederate flag, but it seems to upset people that I have a Mexican flag on my own property.’
Rodriguez said he even got positive comments from city plumbing and maintenance contractors, when he dropped off his daughter at school, and even from strangers in restaurants.
‘All bulls**t aside, I have not got one negative comment, no one driving by yelling FU or any of that,’ he said.
His message for those who don’t like it? ‘It’s a Halloween decoration. After Halloween I’m gonna take it right down.’
