Houston Mayor Orders Police to Stop Calling ICE Over Minor Traffic Stops
John Whitmire signed the order days after Democrats swept Texas statewide offices, telling reporters 'elections matter' and reversing a policy he adopted in April under pressure from Gov. Greg Abbott.
The mayor of Houston, the largest city in Texas, ordered the city's police on Friday to sharply limit their cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying the results of this month's midterm elections gave him room to act.
"Elections matter," Mayor John Whitmire told reporters as he signed the executive order. "I do this to begin a healing process." Under the order, Houston police will contact ICE only when a person is being arrested for a jailable offense, according to Reuters. People stopped for minor traffic violations will no longer be referred to immigration authorities simply because a records check shows an administrative immigration warrant. They can receive a citation and go on their way.
The order reverses a policy Whitmire put in place in April under pressure from outgoing Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott had threatened to withdraw about $110 million in state public safety grants, arguing that a city council ordinance limiting police contact with ICE violated 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 city later amended its rules.
What changed is the political landscape. Democrats swept statewide offices in Texas on Tuesday, winning the governor's race and a U.S. Senate seat and flipping the state House. Whitmire said he consulted Texas's newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller before acting. "We're taking an interpretation of the law today, working with the newly elected members of the state leadership, in implementing this policy," he said. "We don't want people to worry about their workers, their family members, their students."
Houston Police Chief J. Noe Diaz joined the mayor at the news conference and said he supported the change and that the department had already begun carrying it out. The Houston Police Officers' Union said it was blindsided and had not been consulted, and raised questions about how the order squares with state law, according to local broadcaster Fox 26.
The issue has drawn intense scrutiny in the city. 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. In July, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a longtime Houston resident. Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant rights group FIEL Houston, called the order a victory for the city but said it was long overdue. "Today Houston won. Today our community can breathe easier," he said in a statement to KPRC.
Whitmire said he expects Houston's approach to become a model for other cities. In Austin, Mayor Kirk Watson asked city officials on Friday to revise their own policy on how police handle immigration warrants. How far the new Democratic leadership in Austin will go in unwinding SB 4 is the next test, and the order leaves Houston operating under a state law that Republicans in the Legislature wrote and that remains on the books.
