Houston Mayor John Whitmire says a new city directive will reduce police contact with U.S. immigration authorities to cases involving jailable charges or administrative warrants.
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Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an order on Friday directing city police to limit contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), arguing that “elections matter” after Democrats won power in Texas for the first time in decades.
In announcing the change, Whitmire said the city would focus on immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education.” He added that when people are stopped for nonviolent matters, “It reduces the fear and anxiety,” and described a scenario where officers would not make contact with ICE over nonviolent, non-jailable offenses.
Under the two-page order, Houston police should contact ICE only if the person is arrested on a charge that is subject to jailing or if ICE issues an administrative warrant, which the order describes as an order signed by a senior ICE official indicating the person is wanted by immigration officials.
The order also states that “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 move comes as ICE remains heavily dependent on local police to identify people subject to deportation and turn them over, including through agreements that deputize local police and other agencies to enforce immigration laws, with about 2,600 such agreements noted, many in Texas.
The announcement follows recent controversy involving ICE officers in Houston, including protests after an ICE officer fatally shot a Mexican homebuilder this summer and another officer struck a man with a car.
A grand jury last week indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales on an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge. Prosecutors say Morales intentionally rammed his car into Miguel Parra Hernandez, whose leg was broken, while ICE has asserted Parra Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle, an account prosecutors say is contradicted by video.
The directive was also framed in the context of Texas politics: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has aligned closely with the Trump administration on immigration enforcement, lost his bid for a fourth term to Democrat Gina Hinojosa.
An immigrant rights group in Houston, FIEL, planned a press conference Friday afternoon in response to the announcement. “Today Houston won. The City of Houston city council had already decided this months ago,” said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, adding that it was time to follow through.
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