Houston police officers will contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when someone they arrest for a jailable offense also has an immigration warrant, under an executive order Mayor John Whitmire signed Friday, Nov. 6. Police Chief Noe Diaz sent a department-wide memo the same day to put the new process in place, according to the city's announcement.
"I will take responsibility for making this change, even with the current administration still in office for the next two months," Whitmire said. "As I've said many times, elections matter."
What changes after a traffic stop
The order covers administrative ICE warrants, which are civil immigration warrants. In Chief Diaz's example, an officer who pulls someone over for a minor traffic violation and writes a citation will let that person go, even if the person has an administrative ICE warrant. "HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested," he said.
| Situation | Policy since April | Under the Nov. 6 order |
|---|---|---|
| Stop ends with a citation, ICE administrative warrant found | Officers hold the person a "reasonable" time for ICE to respond | Person leaves with the citation, and HPD does not contact ICE |
| Arrest for a new jailable offense, ICE warrant found | ICE contacted | ICE contacted |
Whitmire said keeping ICE contact for arrests will make sure "individuals charged with new jailable offenses, including violent crimes, are removed from our streets," while easing fear among "students, workers, and families."
Why Houston tried this before and backed off
The city attempted a similar change in April. Whitmire and City Council members moved to let officers decide whether to call ICE about civil warrants and to stop detentions based on them. Gov. Greg Abbott then threatened to pull more than $110 million in public safety funding, and the city reversed course, adopting the rule that officers hold people for a "reasonable" time while ICE responds, Houston Public Media reported.
Whitmire tied this week's order to Tuesday's election results. He said he has been in contact with "the new state leadership and bipartisan members of the Legislature" and that "this should be a nonpartisan issue."
What Texas law says about city immigration policies
Texas's 2017 law known as Senate Bill 4 bars cities from adopting a policy that "prohibits or materially limits the enforcement of immigration laws," according to Chapter 752 of the Government Code. A city also may not stop its officers from sharing immigration status information about people who are lawfully detained or under arrest with ICE, or from assisting federal immigration officers "as reasonable or necessary."
The state attorney general enforces the law. Any citizen who lives in the city can file a sworn complaint, and the attorney general can then ask a court to order the city to comply. A city found to have intentionally violated the law owes a civil penalty of $1,000 to $1,500 for a first violation and $25,000 to $25,500 for each later one, and every day a violation continues counts separately. An elected or appointed local official who violates it can be removed from office.
