TEXAS — Two days of heated debate resulted in a 13-4 Houston City Council vote in favor of a revised policy on how Houston police officers work with federal immigration officers.
The vote came following Gov. Greg Abbott’s threat to cut more than $110 million in public safety funds for the city after it approved the original ordinance on April 8.
“It follows the law, protects the Fourth Amendment and protects our city’s funding,” Mayor John Whitmire said.
The ordinance passed just two weeks ago prevented police officers from detaining people due to civil immigration warrants. Whitmire’s amended ordinance clarifies an officer may detain a person, as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purpose of why they were stopped or investigated.
“What the ordinance was doing was telling police you can’t violate the Fourth Amendment,” said Marian Wright, a Houston resident. “No one can violate that. This ordinance didn’t change that.”
Several council members argued the revision made no substantial change to the original ordinance.
“Our city runs our city, and if our city council has followed all of the laws and then passed this ordinance that says there’s limited cooperation in the city, then that’s the law,” said Cris Wright, a community leader.
With that law now amended, some council members and community leaders say the revised version is too vague and leaves room for what they consider more state overreach.
“Leaders in this city and across the state need to be seeking to engage the governor in this conversation in general, not around a particular issue, but how are we going to govern our cities if this is the state’s role in everything that the state disagrees with,” said Bishop James Dixon II, president of the NAACP Houston Branch.
A spokesperson for Abbott called the amended ordinance “a step in the right direction.” Now, the conversation turns to whether the vote will fully satisfy the governor’s demands.