Houston mayor curtails police cooperation with ICE, saying 'elections matter'
Houston Mayor John Whitmire at a City Hall news conference (Texas Weekly)Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order on Friday directing the city's police department to sharply limit its cooperation with federal immigration authorities, days after Democrats swept statewide races in Texas.
Under the new policy, Houston police officers conducting routine traffic stops or detaining someone for another reason are barred from alerting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement solely because the person is subject to a civil immigration warrant. Officers may contact ICE only when a person is arrested and charged with an offense that carries possible jail time and a federal immigration warrant is already in place.
"As I've said many times, elections matter," Whitmire, a Democrat, said at a news conference announcing the order. He said he had consulted with the state's newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller before acting, and described the change as a way to "reduce fear and anxiety" across the most populous city in Texas.
"This is the right thing to do at the right time," Whitmire said. "I do this to begin a healing process," he added, saying he hoped his executive order would become a model for other Texas cities.
Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz joined Whitmire at the news conference, said he supported the change, and said his department had already begun to put the new policy into effect.
"For example, 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. "HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested."
The order is a reversal. In April, the City Council passed an ordinance barring officers from holding someone or extending a stop longer to wait for ICE agents. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott then threatened to withhold about $110 million in public safety grants from the city, and the policy also drew legal scrutiny from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Faced with the potential loss of the funding, city officials retreated and restored broader cooperation with federal agents.
On Friday, Whitmire said Tuesday's elections had changed the political equation. Abbott lost his bid for a fourth term to Democrat Gina Hinojosa on Tuesday, and Democrat James Talarico defeated Paxton in the race for the Texas Senate seat. Whitmire said he was no longer concerned about retribution from the lame-duck Republican establishment.
Whitmire, who voted against the Texas statute banning so-called "sanctuary city" policies as a member of the state Senate in 2017, said the order enforces Senate Bill 4 in line with its supporters' stated goal of cracking down on criminals who are in the country illegally. "We're taking an interpretation of the law today, working with the newly elected members of the state leadership, in implementing this policy," he told reporters. "We don't want people to worry about their workers, their family members, their students."
The order governs Houston police, not federal agents: ICE officers can still carry out their own enforcement operations in the city. It also does not end cooperation entirely — officers are still expected to notify ICE when a person arrested on a jailable charge is also subject to a federal immigration warrant.
The change follows months of protest in Houston after federal immigration officers fatally shot a Mexican homebuilder this summer. Advocates at FIEL Houston, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy group, called the mayor's order a victory, saying their community can now "breathe easier." Houston police contacted ICE at least 107 times during the first eight months of 2025, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The announcement came as Democrats also reclaimed a majority in Congress in Tuesday's midterm elections, in which Republicans lost control of both chambers. USA TODAY said it had reached out to ICE for comment on the Houston order.
Sources: Reuters, "Houston mayor curtails police cooperation with ICE, saying 'elections matter'" (Nov. 7, 2026, full text verified); USA TODAY, "Houston reduces police cooperation with ICE after Democrats flip Texas" (Nov. 6, 2026, full text verified); Houston Chronicle, via reporting on Houston police contacts with ICE (2025).
Sponsored