{"id":260979,"date":"2026-04-22T10:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260979\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T10:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T10:35:07","slug":"houston-council-to-vote-on-weakening-ice-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260979\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston council to vote on weakening ICE policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 largest city is expected to consider amending a policy that limits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, as it faces a major funding threat from Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>. But ahead of the Wednesday vote, civil rights groups have called the proposed changes a \u201cbackdoor attempt\u201d at repealing the ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On April 8, Houston\u2019s City Council removed a rule directing police to wait 30 minutes for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents to arrive, if local officers encounter people with administrative immigration warrants during situations like traffic stops. The ordinance that replaced it also mandates quarterly reports from Houston police on its coordination with ICE.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But after Abbott\u2019s office threatened<\/a> to withdraw more than $110 million in public safety grants on April 13, Mayor John Whitmire \u2014 who voted for the ordinance\u00a0\u2014 immediately backtracked and pushed for a special City Council meeting on Friday to consider repealing the measure. Whitmire then canceled that meeting a few days later because the deadline to respond to the state\u2019s demand was postponed.<\/p>\n

The City Council is now set<\/a> to discuss during its regular meeting Wednesday the proposed amendment to the ordinance, which Whitmire\u2019s office said reaffirms the Fourth Amendment while creating a \u201cclear path to restoring $114 [million]\u201d in state funding.<\/p>\n

The ordinance<\/a> says per the Fourth Amendment, officers can detain someone \u201conly as long as reasonably necessary to complete the legitimate purpose of the initial stop or investigation.\u201d The proposed amendment<\/a> strikes \u201conly\u201d and adds to it that officers may also detain the person \u201cfor other legitimate purposes discovered during the detention,\u201d giving police more leeway for deciding when to extend the detention during these stops.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHPD will ensure the policy complies with this reasonable standard,\u201d the proposal added.<\/p>\n

The proposed amendment also removes emphasis that ICE administrative warrants are civil and that they do not by themselves justify a stop or continued detention by local police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, the proposal redefines an ICE administrative warrant as \u201can administrative warrant issued by ICE personnel commanding the arrest of an individual either to conduct removal proceedings or for removal.\u201d It strikes out language that says these warrants \u201care not reviewed by a neutral magistrate or judge and are not probable cause for a criminal arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City Council had approved the ordinance by a 12-5 vote. To amend it, a simple majority \u2014 or nine votes \u2014 is needed. The previous push for repeal would have required the support from two-thirds of the council instead.<\/p>\n

Houston Police Officers\u2019 Union President Douglas Griffith said he is in favor of the suggested changes, when read the proposed amendment by The Texas Tribune. The union had previously spoken out<\/a> against the ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019s my understanding it\u2019s supposed to comply with state law,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cAnd as long as it does that and protects our officers, we\u2019re good with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Travis Fife, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the proposed changes would gut the ordinance. He also questioned why the proposal cuts details that inform the public about ICE administrative warrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt best, it is redundant and confusing,\u201d Fife said. \u201cAnd at worst, it\u2019s a green light to unconstitutional police enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nikki Luellen with ACLU of Texas echoed Fife\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf our council members don\u2019t listen to us now, before the vote, then they will hear it at the ballot box,\u201d Luellen added in a Tuesday statement.<\/p>\n

Dozens of people also registered to testify about the ordinance in front of the City Council Tuesday afternoon, while protesters in front of City Hall<\/a> chanted in support of immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Besides Houston, the governor\u2019s office has similarly threatened<\/a> to withdraw $2.5 million in grants from Austin, as well as more than $87 million in grants and World Cup public safety\u00a0 funding from Dallas. These two cities also have rules directing local police not to prolong the detention of people during encounters like traffic stops for ICE agents.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>\u2019s office has also sued Houston over the issue. No lawsuits have been announced against the other cities as of Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Disclosure: ACLU Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[392,56,58,57,21382,6748],"class_list":{"0":"post-260979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-greg-abbott","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-headlines","11":"tag-houston-news","12":"tag-illegal-immigration-in-texas","13":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260979","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=260979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}