{"id":256647,"date":"2026-04-19T08:16:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256647\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T08:16:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T08:16:25","slug":"gov-greg-abbott-threatens-200-million-in-funding-from-major-texas-cities-over-ice-policies-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/256647\/","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, which all have rules directing police officers not to prolong the detention of individuals during encounters like traffic stops for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents. <\/p>\n

Some cities have also been under legal scrutiny from Attorney General Ken Paxton\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. Some local leaders have pushed back against that charge, and the ACLU of Texas has said policies like Houston\u2019s support \u201clongstanding protections under the Fourth Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Houston faces the biggest potential loss of state funding. 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 its ordinance.<\/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

\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 Texas 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 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. The guidance<\/a>, adopted in March, bans officers from arresting people solely based on a civil immigration warrant as well as \u201cunreasonably prolonging a detention\u201d in order to contact ICE.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Dallas Police Department\u2019s guidelines<\/a> say officers \u201cmay not prolong the detention of an individual in order to further investigate the individual\u2019s immigration status or to hold them for federal authorities.\u201d Local police are also prohibited from stopping any person \u201cfor the sole purpose of determining immigration status.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not immediately 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 Paxton\u2019s office Thursday over the same issue. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that so much time and resources are being spent on an issue that should not be partisan,\u201d Whitmire said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. \u201cIt interferes with our responsibility to keep Houston safe and protect all residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilmember Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded Houston\u2019s ordinance, called on city leaders to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d the measure, which eliminates the rule directing local law enforcement to wait 30 minutes for federal agents to arrive at the scene if they encounter people with administrative immigration warrants during situations like traffic stops. The ordinance also requires Houston police to deliver quarterly reports on its cooperation with ICE. <\/p>\n

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

___<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by The Texas Tribune<\/a> and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.<\/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…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17827,25005,81792,132,102,490,96613,31820,392,56,1724,3743,1967,4129,865,54569,287,96614,27,29,28,1760,6956,1499],"class_list":{"0":"post-256647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-alejandra-salinas","9":"tag-american-civil-liberties-union","10":"tag-andrew-mahaleris","11":"tag-austin","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-government-budgets","15":"tag-government-policy","16":"tag-greg-abbott","17":"tag-houston","18":"tag-immigration","19":"tag-john-whitmire","20":"tag-ken-paxton","21":"tag-kirk-watson","22":"tag-law-enforcement","23":"tag-minnesota-ice-crackdown","24":"tag-politics","25":"tag-rick-ericson","26":"tag-texas","27":"tag-texas-headlines","28":"tag-texas-news","29":"tag-tx-state-wire","30":"tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","31":"tag-u-s-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256647","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=256647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}