{"id":253475,"date":"2026-04-17T00:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253475\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:25:09","slug":"abbott-threatens-austin-funding-over-ice-cooperation-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253475\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott threatens Austin funding over ICE cooperation limits"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to revoke $2.5 million in state grants from Austin, intensifying a crackdown on Texas cities<\/a> that limit police cooperation with federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent Thursday, Abbott warned the city that it must rescind recent Austin Police Department policy changes or risk losing the funding, saying the new guidelines violate grant language that prohibits the city from adopting a policy that \u201climits or impedes\u201d officers’ ability to share information about undocumented immigrants in their custody with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s policy,\u00a0unveiled in March<\/a>, says noncriminal administrative warrants from ICE alone do not justify an arrest or prolonged stop. It also requires officers to obtain a supervisor’s approval before waiting for ICE to arrive and detain an individual.<\/p>\n

The city’s new guidelines\u00a0\u201cimpede or restrict the notification of DHS regarding aliens in APD\u2019s custody,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

If the Police Department does not rescind the policy changes, the letter states, the city will have to repay the $2.5 million in public safety grants the state issued during fiscal year 2026. The city has until April 23 to confirm it will “not enforce and will act to repeal” the March policy change, according to the letter obtained by the American-Statesman.<\/p>\n

Abbott sent a similar warning to Houston Mayor John Whitmire, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. That letter threatened to revoke about $110 million in grants issued to Houston over an ordinance adopted by the Houston City Council on\u00a0April 8 that attempts to limit officer cooperation with ICE agents.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Abbott also warned Dallas<\/a> that he would revoke $32.1 million in state grants over that city’s immigration-related policies.<\/p>\n

Neither Austin Mayor Kirk\u00a0Watson nor city officials immediately responded to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, city leaders told the Statesman they are confident the city\u2019s policy is in line with state and federal law.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The letter also follows a decision by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week to investigate the Police Department\u2019s policy over potential violations of Senate Bill 4, the 2017 law that prohibits municipalities from passing restrictions on police cooperation with federal immigration agents.<\/p>\n

In a statement responding to Paxton\u2019s investigation, Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax said the policy revisions \u201cwere designed to ensure the city can continue meeting our local public safety needs, provide clarity for our officers, and continue complying with all legal requirements, including the U.S. Constitution and SB4.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to revoke $2.5 million in state grants from Austin, intensifying a crackdown on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-253475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253475","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=253475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}