Houston Mayor John Whitmire (D) announced an executive order Friday that limits when Houston police contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Officers will contact ICE when they arrest someone for a jailable offense and find an administrative ICE warrant. Officers who issue a citation or warning will no longer contact ICE only because such a warrant appears, according to KPRC.
At a November 6 news conference, Whitmire said that elections mattered to his decision and that the change would reduce fear and anxiety in the community. Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said officers began carrying out the revised instructions Friday. The city directive does not restrict federal agents' own enforcement authority.
The Houston Mayor's Office said on X that the order directs police to "no longer contact ICE for nonviolent offences." ICE responded on the platform, saying that watching child porn and selling heroin are classified as nonviolent offenses and that the mayor was advocating for policies that protect some of the worst criminals in America.
The order reverses a April 23 police directive adopted during a dispute with Texas officials over immigration enforcement and state public-safety money. Whitmire said those earlier changes would allow Houston to recover $114 million in state public-safety funding. Questions remain about whether the state could renew its earlier objections.