Kyle McClenagan/Houston Public Media
Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz speak at an HPD facility groundbreaking on July 9, 2026.
Prompted by Democratic gains during the midterm elections, Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Friday he’s directing the Houston Police Department to reduce contact with federal immigration officers.
Whitmire issued an executive order directing HPD officers to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only when a person with a civil immigration warrant is charged with a jailable offense. It marks a stark shift from the city police department’s previous policy on interacting with ICE, which drew increased scrutiny over the past year.
“I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community,” Whitmire said during a press conference on Friday. “I also do this knowing that elections matter.”
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Under the executive order, officers will no longer be allowed to detain people solely due to civil immigration warrants. Officers will be prohibited from contacting ICE about those warrants unless the person is charged with a jailable offense.
“For example, if our police officers pull over someone for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day,” Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz said. “HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested.”
HPD’s interactions with ICE posed a political conundrum to Whitmire over the past year.
In April, he joined a group of Houston City Council members in an effort to curtail the department’s coordination with federal immigration agents — by giving officers discretion over whether or not to contact ICE about civil immigration warrants, and prohibiting them from detaining people for those warrants.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott intervened, threatening to revoke more than $110 million in public safety funding. Whitmire and the city council capitulated, reversing the measure and requiring officers to detain immigrants for a “reasonable” amount of time while waiting for ICE agents to respond to warrants.
Before the city council meeting in which officials walked back the ordinance, Whitmire’s staff passed out a memo to city council members detailing more than $260 million in direct appropriations to Houston from the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature in 2025. Whitmire said a battle with the state would cost the city funding in the future.
Houston City Council Member Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded the ordinance in April and opposed its reversal, told Houston Public Media on Friday the policy change was a “great step forward.”
“Today, we acknowledged the fear that we had been causing, and I’m so grateful that we can put those days behind us,” she said. “I commend the mayor and Chief Diaz for finally listening to the calls of community and taking this decisive action.”
The original ordinance required HPD to provide regular reports on those interactions, and that measure survived. According to the department’s first two reports, officers contacted ICE nearly 200 times from April through September, including at least 36 instances in which HPD officers handed people directly to ICE.
Related: Houston police responded to a man in a mental health crisis. ICE arrested him
According to records obtained by Houston Public Media, some of those incidents came after people called emergency services for help — including for a suicide attempt and domestic violence.
Abbott nor the Texas Attorney General’s Office immediately responded to a request to comment regarding Whitmire’s announcement.