{"id":253445,"date":"2026-04-17T00:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253445\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:03:08","slug":"houston-mayor-cancels-special-council-meeting-on-hpd-ice-policy-says-state-deadline-is-extended-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253445\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston mayor cancels special council meeting on HPD-ICE policy, says state deadline is extended \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Houston<\/a><\/p>\n

Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Houston Mayor John Whitmire speaks in favor of a proposed ordinance on Apr. 8.<\/p>\n

Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced Thursday that he\u2019s scrapping the special city council meeting he had scheduled for Friday to consider repealing the city’s new policy limiting the Houston Police Department’s involvement in federal immigration law enforcement.<\/p>\n

The recently passed ordinance prompted a threat by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to terminate more than $110 million in public safety grants for the city. In a statement Thursday, Whitmire said Abbott’s office has extended its deadline for repealing the ordinance from Monday, April 20, until Wednesday, April 22. <\/p>\n

“The special-called Houston City Council meeting has been postponed until Wednesday, April 22, to give my administration additional time to continue productive discussions with the governor’s office, city council members, law enforcement and the community,” Whitmire said. <\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Whitmire\u2019s announcement, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he had filed a lawsuit against the city and some of its elected officials over its ordinance. Paxton alleges the ordinance violates Senate Bill 4, passed during the 2017 Legislative Session. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnder SB 4, a local entity such as the City of Houston may not adopt, enforce, or endorse a policy that prohibits or materially limits the enforcement of federal immigration laws,\u201d Paxton said in a release announcing the lawsuit. \u201cHowever, Houston adopted a city ordinance that blatantly violates this law.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: After Abbott\u2019s threat, Houston Mayor Whitmire\u2019s influence faces test in his push to repeal HPD-ICE policy<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, the city council approved \u2014 in a 12-5 vote with Whitmire\u2019s support \u2014 a new policy<\/a> intended to limit the coordination between the city\u2019s police department and U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). <\/p>\n

Spearheaded by council members Alejandra Salinas, Edward Pollard and Abbie Kamin, the new policy prohibits officers from detaining people or lengthening traffic stops due to civil immigration warrants issued by ICE. <\/p>\n

On Monday, Abbott threatened to pull more than $110 million in public safety grants <\/a>to the city of Houston if the ordinance is not repealed. <\/p>\n

Whitmire called the potential loss of funding a “crisis situation” and quickly began working to repeal the policy.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Here’s what leaders across Texas are saying about Abbott’s fight with Houston city officials over ICE policy<\/a><\/p>\n

If the special meeting had taken place Friday, Whitmire would have needed a two-thirds majority vote on the city council in order to advance a repeal item. During the regular council meeting on Wednesday, the item will need only a simple majority in order to pass.<\/p>\n

Before canceling Friday\u2019s meeting, Whitmire’s administration placed an item on the agenda for Wednesday\u2019s meeting “relating to Law Enforcement Field Encounters and Interactions with Federal Immigration Authorities.” <\/p>\n

Nancy Sims, a political analyst at the University of Houston, said Whitmire likely would not have had enough votes to repeal the ordinance by Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, by extending the deadline, it gives the mayor more time to work with city council members to find a viable solution,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so, it makes sense that he\u2019d postpone it to give himself and council members more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston Public Media’s Dominic Anthony Walsh contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominic Anthony Walsh \/ Houston Public Media Houston Mayor John Whitmire speaks in favor of a proposed ordinance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[3766,4872,56,4626,58,3771,57,2543,95717,1724,865,66,223,287,6956],"class_list":{"0":"post-253445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-city-of-houston","9":"tag-gov-greg-abbott","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-city-council","12":"tag-houston-headlines","13":"tag-houston-mayor-john-whitmire","14":"tag-houston-news","15":"tag-houston-police-department","16":"tag-hpd-ice-policy","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-law-enforcement","19":"tag-local","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}