Houston Mayor John Whitmire has issued an executive order that sharply limits the city police’s cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
What the order says
Police will contact ICE only when a person is being arrested for a jailable offence. People stopped for minor traffic violations will no longer be referred to ICE only because they have an administrative immigration warrant. Police Chief J. Noe Diaz supported the change and said the department had already begun applying it.
Why it matters
The order reverses a policy Whitmire adopted in April under pressure from outgoing Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who threatened to withdraw about $110 million in state public safety grants. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had also sued the mayor, the city council and the police chief. Whitmire said he consulted the state’s newly elected leaders before acting, and that the aim is to reduce fear in the community.
The Houston Chronicle found that city police contacted ICE at least 107 times in the first eight months of 2025, compared with nine times in all of 2024. Immigrant rights group FIEL Houston called the order a victory but said it was long overdue.
Source: Al Jazeera, citing Reuters. Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
