AUSTIN, Texas — The City of Austin announced on Friday that it will update the Austin Police Department’s General Orders after facing potential cuts to public safety funding from the state.
The update comes after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to terminate $2.5 million in public safety grants if the city did not change its policies on how police officers interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said that the grants at risk are used for trauma aid for first responders and sexual assault victims.
Back in March, the Austin Police Department updated its General Orders to say that officers are ”not authorized to make an arrest or detention based solely on an ICE Administrative Warrant.” The policy also required officers to talk to a supervisor before contacting ICE.
The change came after city officials faced public backlash over the deportation of a mother and child after a 911 call in Austin. The officers who responded to the call alerted ICE after seeing an administrative warrant in a federal database. An administrative warrant is a formal document issued by a federal agency, such as the Department of Homeland Security, authorizing federal law enforcement to make an arrest, and it is not signed by a judge.
In a social media post announcing the updates to the General Orders, Watson defended the previous changes, saying he believed they followed state requirements. Despite that, Watson said that losing the public safety grants would have meant the “loss of important public safety services for people we want protected. We have an obligation to them.”
“The City and State have come to an agreement that the Chief and I believe is practical for our day-to-day policing, will not create undue harm for residents who are the subject of noncriminal, administrative warrants, and preserves important public safety funding,” Watson said. “The newly amended General Orders take into account the practicality and reality of policing in Austin while also satisfying some of the concerns raised by the Governor’s office.”
In March, Chief of Police Lisa Davis revised the Austin Police Department’s General Orders to address the more than 700,000 noncriminal, administrative warrants put into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database in 2025.
The Orders were also to provide clarity for… pic.twitter.com/YQv7wnKL28
— Mayor Kirk Watson (@KirkPWatson) April 24, 2026
Austin was not the only city to receive a letter threatening to cut funding over its immigration policies. Both Houston and Dallas received letters, with Houston potentially losing $110 million and Dallas losing approximately $87 million in grants.
The Houston City Council passed an ordinance earlier this month to minimize its police cooperation with ICE, and soon after, received a letter from Abbott. The council then voted to revise its policy last week.
In Dallas, Police Chief Daniel Comeaux revised his department’s policy last week to comply with Abbott’s order requiring greater cooperation with federal immigration authorities.