(The Center Square) – Houston Mayor John Whitmire is in trouble with the state after certifying on a grant application that the city and Houston Police Department would cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement after the city council passed an ordinance restricting HPD officers from doing so.
The saga began last month after several policy reversals and came to a head Monday night.
Last month, Whitmire, who has long supported law enforcement, instituted a policy requiring HPD officers to cooperate with ICE. The directive required them to contact ICE when they encounter an illegal foreign national that has a federal administrative warrant. Under the Trump administration, roughly 700,000 administrative federal warrants were entered into the National Crime Information Center database, which law enforcement agencies use nationwide to access criminal data.
At a March 11 press conference with HPD Chief Noe Diaz, Whitmire said the ICE warrants are lawful warrants and must be honored. HPD officers don’t ask residents their immigration status when they are pulled over for traffic violations or during other police business but the law requires them to perform a criminal background check. “If there is a warrant from any jurisdiction, we’re required to contact them,” Whitmire said.
The new policy required HPD officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE to come and pick up the illegal foreign national in question. The warrants were issued after a federal immigration judge issued a removal order after they went through due process.
In response, the Democratic-led City Council opposed the action. On April 8, they passed an ordinance, by a vote of 12-5, which Whitmire supported. It was passed despite strong objection from the Houston Police Officer’s Union and a minority of Republicans who warned the city could lose funding and put law enforcement and residents in danger.
After the vote, the union said the ordinance not only put officers in a “very dangerous position” but jeopardized the safety of Houstonians. Officers who encounter suspects with an outstanding warrant must contact the agency holding the warrant by law, it argues, a position the mayor has held. “If we release an individual with a warrant and they go on to victimize a citizen of this city, our department and the individual officer can be held liable. It is imperative that officers continue to protect the citizens of Houston,” it said.
Next, the Office of Attorney General opened an investigation into the city’s actions stating it violated a new state law, SB 4. The law prohibits local entities from adopting policies that “prohibit or materially limit” cooperation with ICE. It also requires local law enforcement to honor ICE detainee requests and prohibits restricting officers from cooperating or sharing information with ICE.
Fast forward to Monday when Whitmire certified a public safety grant application with the governor’s Public Safety Office stating the city and HPD would “participate fully… in all aspects of the programs and procedures utilized by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” The certification states the HPD will notify DHS/ICE of all information requested related to illegal foreign nationals in their custody. It also states the city and HPD do not have “and will continue not to have any policy, procedure, or agreement that in any way limits or impedes HPD’s receipt or DHS’s issuance of detainer requests, or in any way limits or restricts the City’s or HPD’s full participation in all aspects of the programs and procedures utilized by DHS.”
The certification requires the signer to acknowledge that if the city fails to comply with the requirement, the PSO could terminate any grant the governor’s office made to the city – totaling an estimated $110 million. The city would also be required to “return all funds received from” PSO that relate to the certifications and become ineligible for new PSO grant funding until it shows it’s been compliant for one year, the governor’s office said.
“By prohibiting HPD from acting on an administrative warrant issued by a component of DHS that directs the detention of an alien,” the ordinance “impedes notification of DHS regarding aliens in HPD’s custody and the detention of such aliens,” and violates the terms of the agreement, the governor’s office said.
The governor’s PSO gave Whitmire until April 20 to confirm that the city would act to repeal the ordinance and not enforce it. Failure to do so will result in the city losing all state grant money.
The city is already facing a more than $150 million deficit as the mayor is currently in budget preparations.
In response, Whitmire said in a news release Monday night, “I repeatedly warned the ordinance sponsors, Council Members [Alejandra] Salinas, [Abbie] Kamin, and [Edward] Pollard about the legal and financial risks associated with this approach,” even though he voted for it.
“This is a crisis situation,” he continued. “The potential loss of state funding poses real challenges for the Houston Police and Fire Departments and will impact public safety services across our city, the 2026 FIFA World Cup preparations and the Homeland Security Department. Our public safety departments rely on a combination of local, state, and federal resources to operate effectively.
“We have significant work ahead and I’m considering all options.”
