Houston Mayor Limits Police Cooperation With ICE After Abbott’s Election Defeat

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has announced that city police would limit their cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during traffic stops, following the defeat of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by Democrat Gina Hinojosa in the Texas gubernatorial election, Dylan Stableford reported for Yahoo News.

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has announced new restrictions on police cooperation with ICE during traffic stops following the Texas gubernatorial election. [Photo: ICE X]

Under Whitmire’s new executive order, Houston police officers are directed to contact ICE only when a person is already being taken into custody for new criminal charges or other warrants and has a positive record match for an ICE administrative warrant.

“The fact that a person is, or is suspected to be, subject to immigration enforcement shall not, by itself, be a basis to contact ICE, to prolong any detention, or to take any person into or hold any person in custody,” the two-page order states.

“I do this to begin a healing process — reduce fear and anxiety across our community,” Whitmire said during a news conference announcing what he described as a “new model” for immigration enforcement.

“I also do this knowing that elections matter.”

The directive marks a shift in Houston’s approach to cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Earlier instructions required police to contact ICE when they encountered individuals with administrative immigration warrants and to wait a reasonable amount of time for federal agents to take custody of them.

The change follows months of tension between Houston officials and Abbott, who had threatened to withhold approximately $110 million in state public safety grants over the city’s previous restrictions on cooperation with ICE.