Overview
- Mayor John Whitmire issued the executive order Friday directing the Houston Police Department to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when someone is already being taken to jail on new charges or other warrants and has a positive NCIC hit for an ICE administrative warrant.
- The order says immigration status alone cannot justify contacting ICE, prolonging detention, or holding a person in custody, and aims to limit notifications for nonviolent, non-jailable offenses.
- HPD reports show officers contacted ICE nearly 200 times from April through September, including at least 36 handoffs, and some contacts occurred after emergency responses to calls for help.
- Earlier this year the city tried to reduce cooperation with ICE but backed off after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withhold more than $110 million in public-safety funding, a fiscal pressure that still looms over the policy.
- High-profile enforcement incidents this year, including a fatal shooting and a grand jury indictment of an ICE officer, have driven community protests and informed the city’s move; the new rule keeps reporting requirements in place and could prompt further legal and political clashes with state officials.