Houston Mayor John Whitmire has directed the city's police department to sharply limit its cooperation with federal immigration agents, a reversal that lands just days after Texas Democrats swept races that turned heavily on anger over immigration enforcement.
"I do this to begin a healing process," Whitmire, a Democrat, said Friday, "and to reduce fear and anxiety across our community." He added pointedly: "I also do this knowing that elections matter."
From automatic notification to a narrower warrant check
Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz said officers will now contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement only if someone they arrest for a jailable offence also carries an administrative ICE warrant. "If our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day," Diaz said. Under the old rules, officers were required to notify ICE whenever a database check during any stop turned up such a warrant. Whitmire made the change through an executive order and also called on Congress to overhaul federal enforcement: "ICE needs better training. They need body cameras. They need to be trained in de-escalation. But this can only be done in Washington. I can only control what I can control." Austin has begun rolling out a similar policy change of its own.
The move follows months of public anger in Houston after an ICE officer fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican national who had lived in the US without legal status for decades, while he was driving to work; officials later said he was not the intended target. A week ago, a separate ICE officer was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly striking a man with a vehicle elsewhere in Texas.
The policy breaks with Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who lost his own re-election bid Tuesday as Democrats took the Texas governorship for the first time since 1995 and won a US Senate seat in the state for the first time since 1988 — part of a national wave that handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress. Abbott has previously threatened to strip tens of millions of dollars in funding from Houston, Dallas and Austin over similar policies; his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency was "disappointed that sanctuary politicians seek to limit cooperation with ICE, as our law enforcement are simply fulfilling their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities," adding that "partnerships with law enforcement are critical to having the resources we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country." Whitmire had resisted similar changes for months, citing concern that the White House might respond by surging federal agents into the city — a risk he now appears willing to accept.
