Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced Friday, Nov. 6, that the city will limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, directing police to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only in narrow circumstances, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Under the two-page order, a person’s immigration status alone cannot justify contacting ICE, prolonging a detention or holding someone in custody. Officers should reach ICE only when a person is arrested on a charge subject to jailing or when ICE issues an administrative warrant signed by a senior ICE official.
Whitmire said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education.” For a traffic incident involving a nonviolent, non-jailable offense, he said, officers would not even write a citation — they would warn the person and let them go, with no ICE contact, a change he said “reduces the fear and anxiety.”
Directive Follows ICE Shootings and Officer Indictment in Houston
The move comes after the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Houston sparked protests following two violent encounters: an ICE officer fatally shot a Mexican homebuilder this summer, and another officer struck a man with a car. Last week, a grand jury indicted ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon; prosecutors contend that Morales deliberately drove his car into Miguel Parra Hernandez, fracturing his leg, while ICE maintains that Parra Hernandez ran in front of the car — an account prosecutors say video contradicts.
ICE spokespersons did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the mayor’s announcement.
Texas Democrats Take Power as ICE Leans on Local Police
The directive is one of the first steps to curb ICE’s powers since Tuesday’s election, in which Democrats won power in Texas for the first time in decades — Gov. Greg Abbott lost his bid for a fourth term to Democrat Gina Hinojosa. Even after a one-time $75 billion infusion from Congress, ICE remains heavily dependent on local police to locate people subject to deportation, having signed about 2,600 agreements — many of them in Texas — enabling local agencies to enforce immigration laws.
Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL, a Houston immigrant rights group working with Parra Hernandez’s family, said, “Today Houston won,” and the group planned to hold a press conference Friday afternoon in response to the announcement.
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