After two years in office, Alamdar Hamdani, the first Asian American to serve as the Southern District of Texas’ chief federal prosecutor, announced his resignation on Wednesday.
Hamdani stated in a press release that his resignation would become effective on January 19. Until President-elect Donald Trump appoints a successor, it is unknown who will serve as acting U.S. attorney. Prior to Ryan Patrick’s resignation upon President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, the position was held by Jennifer Lowery, Hamdani’s first assistant.
Hamdani stated in a lengthy interview with the Landing on Tuesday that he is not sure what he will do next. “When a new administration takes office, it’s common for U.S. attorneys to be asked to resign,” he continued, “especially if they were appointed by a president of the opposite party.” U.S. attorneys in Massachusetts, California, Florida, and Hawaii have in fact declared their intention to resign in recent days.
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At his office in downtown Houston, Hamdani stated, “We serve at the president’s pleasure.”
According to Hamdani, he has largely achieved his goals since taking office in December 2022, including reducing Houston’s murder rate, fighting violent crime, and giving public corruption, national security, white-collar crime, and drug cases first priority.
According to state data, Houston’s murder rate dropped from 429 to 343 between 2022 and 2023, a 20% decline. The city’s police department reported about 300 homicides in 2024 as of November, compared to a five-year high of 464 in 2021.
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Hamdani’s office has pursued individuals suspected of unlawfully carrying firearms and targeted suspected gang members for offenses ranging from drug selling to murder as part of a Department of Justice strategy that is now two years old and aimed at preventing violent crime.
Hamdani made reference to instances involving accused members of the 100% Third Ward (103) Gang and Rich Kingzgangs, saying, “If you are a violent gang in Houston, be aware of what we’ve done.”
Federal and state authorities reported that they had arrested 65 violent offenders, seized 130 firearms, and seized approximately $1.3 million as part of the violent crime initiative in August, when they arrested over a dozen suspected drug traffickers, including a suspected Rich Kingz gang leader.
The veteran prosecutor also sought to stop the spread of fentanyl. Under his direction, the South Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office has brought charges against alleged fentanyl distributors and in July charged a Chinese man with smuggling chemicals required to manufacture the potent narcotic.
Building up the office’s public corruption and white-collar divisions to reduce the period between behavior and consequences was Hamdani’s top priority when he took office.
In order to accomplish that, there will be an adequate number of attorneys, investigators, and analysts working on the case, all of whom will be tasked with gathering evidence and assembling a case before presenting it to the grand jury, according to Hamdani.
Making sure there were adequate resources at the border has been a primary focus, according to the Southern District of Texas’ senior federal prosecutor. To replace those who left when the Biden administration abandoned Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy, this required recruiting prosecutors in Laredo, McAllen, and Brownsville.
With 43 counties and almost nine million residents, the Texas Southern District is enormous. In the past two years, Hamdani said, his prosecutors have obtained over 10,000 indictments from federal grand juries, the most of which have come from border offices.
Before being appointed to the top position, Hamdani worked for five years in the Department of Justice’s counterterrorism division and prosecuted matters involving public corruption and national security for the Southern District of Texas.
Hamdani was a civil rights lawyer in the private sector before to joining the federal administration. He performed pro bono services for Asian and Arab men in the Houston area who were being questioned and investigated by federal authorities following 9/11.
The University of Texas at Austin awarded Hamdani a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1993, while the University of Houston awarded him a law degree in 1999.
Hamdani, a dad of two and an enthusiastic swimmer despite having a chlorine allergy, stated that he has achieved another objective that he hopes his successor would carry out: operating the office in accordance with the mother rule.
Hamdani claimed that shortly after Chief District Judge Randy Crane swore him in, he called a meeting with the 220 assistant U.S. attorneys and 400 or so employees under his supervision and displayed a photo of his mother at his desk.
Hamdani told his staff that his mother, who he claimed was four feet ten inches tall, stood in for the hundreds of thousands of migrants who each year enter this country, the migrants who become victims of human trafficking, and the people of color who may have had their civil rights violated.
According to him, we view them as individuals rather than as a number.
Hamdani, whose family immigrated to the US from the UK when he was ten years old, claimed that his mother exemplified how they need to treat each other. According to his description, the mama rule also applies to federal judges, federal public defenders, criminal defense lawyers, law enforcement officials, and the defendants they confront in court.
We make sure that we have the facts and the law on our side before we launch a case, and we do that with every case we bring, since once we touch the defendant’s shoulder, their life will inevitably turn upside down if they are a criminal defendant, Hamdani added.
According to Hamdani, he believes the next South Texas U.S. Attorney will have the tools necessary to carry out their duties successfully. Despite inheriting a sound budget that has been profitable for the last two years, Hamdani claimed that Congress has recently cut money for the Department of Justice, making it even more difficult for U.S. Attorneys to do their jobs.
Hamdani stated that his budget is in the multiples of several million dollars, but he would not provide a precise amount.
He declared, “We need more USAS in this office than ever before.” For whoever becomes office, I believe that will be a struggle. Given your limited resources, how do you continue doing what you do?
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Houston U.S. Attorney, first Asian American to hold post, to resign before Trump takes office
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