The mayor of Houston has ordered the city's police force to sharply limit its cooperation with federal immigration agents, one of the first major policy shifts by a Texas elected official after Democrats swept statewide offices in Tuesday's midterm elections.
Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order on Friday directing Houston police to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when a person is being arrested for a jailable offense. Officers conducting routine traffic stops or other nonviolent encounters will no longer alert ICE solely because a person has a civil immigration warrant.
"I've said many times, elections matter," Whitmire said at a press conference announcing the change. He said the move was meant to reduce fear and anxiety across the city, and that he had consulted the state's newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller before acting.
The order reverses a policy Whitmire put in place in April under pressure from outgoing Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who had threatened to pull about $110 million in public safety grants after the City Council passed an ordinance limiting how long officers could hold people while waiting for ICE agents. 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 all of 2024.
Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said he supported the change and that his department had already begun to implement it. "For example, if our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day," Diaz said. "HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested."
The shift comes after Democrats won every statewide office in Texas on Tuesday, including Democrat Gina Hinojosa ousting Abbott to become the state's first Latina governor. ICE pushed back on the change in a statement on X, and Abbott and other Republicans remain in power until January.
