Houston Mayor Curbs Police Cooperation With ICE
The mayor of Houston, the most populous city in the US state of Texas, has ordered the city's police force to sharply limit its cooperation with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE.
In an executive order issued on Friday, Mayor John Whitmire directed that Houston police will contact ICE only when a person is being arrested for an offence that can lead to imprisonment. The order came days after Democrats swept statewide offices in the traditionally Republican state of Texas.
Under the new rules, people stopped for minor traffic violations will no longer be referred to ICE simply because an administrative immigration warrant exists against them.
Speaking to reporters, Whitmire said he had consulted Texas's newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller before taking the step. He said the move was meant to reduce fear and anxiety across the city.
'Elections matter,' Whitmire told reporters. 'I do this to begin a healing process,' he added, expressing the hope that his executive order would become a model for other Texas cities.
Houston Police Chief J Noe Diaz, who stood beside the mayor at the news conference, said he supported the change and that his department had already begun implementing the new policy.
The decision reverses a policy Whitmire himself put in place in April, under pressure from outgoing Republican Governor Greg Abbott.
Abbott had threatened to withdraw about 110 million dollars in state public safety grants, arguing that a city council ordinance limiting police contact with ICE breached Senate Bill 4, a 2017 state law that bars local police from restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued the mayor, the city council and the police chief over the ordinance.
The issue has drawn intense scrutiny in Houston. An investigation by 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 the whole of 2024.
In July, an ICE agent shot dead Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a longtime Houston resident.
The immigrant rights group FIEL Houston called the order a victory for the city, but said the step was long overdue.
