{"id":253502,"date":"2026-04-17T00:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253502\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T00:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T00:43:07","slug":"gov-greg-abbott-threatens-200-million-in-funding-from-major-texas-cities-over-ice-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/253502\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott threatens $200 million in funding from major Texas cities over ICE policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>\u2019s office has threatened to cut state funding to three of Texas\u2019 largest cities if they fail to change policies that the governor says limit police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n

Around $200 million in public safety funding is at risk for Houston, Dallas and Austin, with Houston facing the biggest potential loss of state funding.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Abbott\u2019s office told the state\u2019s largest city that the state will withdraw around $110 million in public safety grants, if it does not repeal an ordinance limiting coordination between police and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. <\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s office followed that on Thursday with similar letters to Austin \u2014 warning the city that around $2.5 million in similar funding could be at risk \u2014 and Dallas, which stands to lose more than $32 million in grants, as well as more than $55 million in World Cup public safety funding.<\/p>\n

Some cities have also been under legal scrutiny from Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>\u2019s office, which said their policies violate Senate Bill 4, a state law that bans local governments from adopting measures that \u201cmaterially limit\u201d immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities in Texas are expected to make the streets safer, not more deadly,\u201d Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott\u2019s spokesperson, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Mahaleris didn\u2019t immediately respond to the Tribune\u2019s questions about whether the governor\u2019s office has sent similar letters to any other local governments. <\/p>\n

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson pushed back against Abbott\u2019s threat in a public statement,<\/a> saying that the city\u2019s policy is consistent with SB 4 and only provides clarity for officers when they interact with immigration officers. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Austin has made great progress on public safety \u2014 but our APD officers do not have the capacity \u2014 and should not be asked \u2014 to do the jobs of other entities,\u201d Watson said. \u201cThere is great irony that the state would try to punish the City for providing services that keep Austinites safe by threatening grants that keep Austin safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Austin Current reported<\/a> that Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into the Austin Police Department\u2019s immigration policy, which it revised after the January detention and alleged deportation of a Honduran woman and her 5-year-old child<\/a> sparked community backlash. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, it\u2019s not clear whether Dallas is also being investigated by Paxton\u2019s office, which didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment. <\/p>\n

In response to Abbott\u2019s letter, Dallas spokesperson Rick Ericson said: \u201cWe remain committed to complying with all applicable state and federal laws while continuing to prioritize public safety for the residents of Dallas, and ensuring our officers have the resources and support necessary to effectively serve the community.\u201d <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Houston Mayor John Whitmire \u2014 who voted for the ordinance targeted by Abbott \u2014 called the governor\u2019s threat a \u201ccrisis situation\u201d and immediately pushed for a special city council meeting to reconsider the measure. But while Whitmire received an extended deadline<\/a> from the governor\u2019s office, Houston was also slapped with a lawsuit from Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office Thursday over the same issue. <\/p>\n

Whitmire\u2019s office didn\u2019t immediately respond to a comment request about Paxton\u2019s lawsuit. <\/p>\n

Councilmember Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded Houston\u2019s ordinance, called on city leaders to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d the ordinance and residents\u2019 constitutional rights. Prior to Paxton\u2019s lawsuit, she had already been calling on the city to challenge Abbott\u2019s threat in court. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no longer a question about whether the City should go to court. We\u2019re already there,\u201d Salinas said. \u201cThe Mayor and City Council must vigorously defend the law we voted for and that the City Attorney deemed legal. I stand ready to work with my colleagues to defend our laws and protect Houstonians\u2019 constitutional rights.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s office has threatened to cut state funding to three of Texas\u2019 largest cities if they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132,102,392,56,1724,287,1564,27,29,293,28,6473],"class_list":{"0":"post-253502","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-greg-abbott","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-immigration","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-state-government","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-legislature","18":"tag-texas-news","19":"tag-well-a-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253502","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=253502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253502\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}