(The Center Square) – Houston Mayor John Whitmire has called an emergency city council meeting on Friday for members to consider repealing Proposition A, which limits Houston Police Department officers’ interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
As of Tuesday afternoon, an account used by the city of Houston to receive grant money from the governor’s Office of Public Safety was closed and the city lost $110 million in funding because of Proposition A. The funding gap directly impacts HPD, the Houston Fire Department, and city offices of Emergency Management and Homeland Security unless the proposition is rescinded.
The governor’s office contacted Whitmire stating the proposition made the city in violation of grant conditions the city agreed to in order to receive the funding, The Center Square reported.
At a meeting on Tuesday, city council members blamed the governor for the funding shortfall. Whitmire said the city relies on state, county and federal partnerships and funding and doesn’t have the revenue to support its services. “You can play chicken if you want,” he told other members. “My responsibility is the safety of Houstonians.”
He also said, “the governor means business” and City Council member Alejandra Salinas’ recommendation to go to court and get a restraining order to stop the governor from cutting funding was a moot point.
“We’ve already lost the money,” he said. “The state Supreme court will not favor our position.” The city government is “an instrument of state government. The governor controls his funding. This is not a legal issue. This is about the governor having discretion over how he spends grant money allocated to his office by the legislature.”
Salinas argued the decision the city council made was legal and constitutional and the governor’s decision “does not supersede the constitutional right of Houstonians.”
At issue is whether Houston police officers should be allowed to contact ICE when they encounter an illegal foreign national with an administrative warrant. The warrants are issued after the individual has already gone through due process and a federal judge has issued a deportation order. The individuals are not Houstonians nor are they U.S. citizens. They are foreign nationals illegally living in the U.S. whom a federal judge has determined should be removed from the country. The federal immigration law on which the judge is ruling does not apply to U.S. citizens, neither do removal orders or deportation.
Whitmire said the issue may be public safety this time but could be public health or another issue in the future. “Now is the time to be responsible and not play politics,” he said. “Houston’s safety depends on it. We do not have local monies for this replacement of grant money.”
Houston Police Union President Doug Griffin said officers had more than two million contacts with civilians last year and only 256 citizen complaints and 74 incidents related to ICE.
It wasn’t just Democrats who voted for the proposition, Republican Councilman Julian Ramirez also did.
At a Republicans of Southwest Houston meeting this week at which The Center Square attended, Ramirez explained his vote. He said it was primarily because he believed it would make residents safer. As a former Harris County prosecutor for more than 30 years, Ramirez said he “prosecuted countless murders, capital murders, and aggravated assault deadly weapon cases” where illegal foreign nationals “were often necessary witnesses.”
He said he knew they were in the country illegally but he “needed their cooperation to keep violent criminals behind bars. Many were reluctant to testify for fear of being detained at court. I had to convince them to trust that neither I nor anyone in court would call immigration authorities to come get them. I secured many convictions using their testimony. Never once did I call immigration authorities to turn them in. Every other prosecutor I knew did exactly the same thing.”
Audience members disagreed with his perspective and many expressed outrage.
Texas’ U.S. senators, both from Houston, have weighed in on the vote and have said they hope the city council will rescind the resolution.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said the city council’s new policy “is not only absurd – it’s dangerous” and HPD officers should be able to fully cooperate with ICE.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said the vote was “really unfortunate” and city council members “would rather have [illegal foreign nationals] released into Houston” than detained and deported, he told Fox 26 News. “I think most Houstonians don’t agree with that and I think most Texans don’t agree with that.”
