{"id":264171,"date":"2026-04-24T10:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/264171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:00:07","slug":"gov-abbott-warns-austin-is-not-yet-in-compliance-as-ice-policy-deadline-looms-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/264171\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Abbott warns Austin is “not yet in compliance” as ICE policy deadline looms"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The City of Austin said Governor Greg Abbott’s office has extended its Thursday deadline to comply with state demands over its police immigration policies<\/a> and hopes to reach a resolution in “the coming days.”<\/p>\n

Gov. Abbott warned that failing to meet the deadline could cost the city $2.5 million in public safety grants.<\/p>\n

“Austin is not yet in compliance, and we look forward to reviewing any proposals it submits before today’s deadline,” Abbott’s office said Thursday afternoon prior to the deadline extension.<\/p>\n

The city did not immediately share more details on the new deadline.<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS COVERAGE | Austin City Council faces deadline to meet state ICE demands or lose $2.5M grants<\/a><\/p>\n

The dispute centers on policies Austin City Council revised in March<\/a> governing how Austin police interact with ICE when presented with administrative warrants. Abbott has argued the policies violate a contract the city signed with the state.<\/p>\n

“The state didn’t force Austin or other cities into a contract. The cities signed a contract to get money from the state. After they got the money, the cities refused to comply with the contract terms. Those terms include a requirement that the cities repay the state all the money they got if they don’t comply with the contract,” Abbott wrote on X<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Houston City Council voted Wednesday<\/a> to amend its own policies to preserve more than $100 million in state grants.<\/p>\n

Abbott told Fox News on Wednesday that the Houston Police Department still needs to update its policies.<\/p>\n

“What the city council did today does fully comply with the agreement they entered into to get the money from the state of Texas,” he said. “However, also the signer of the agreement is the police department, and if the police department does not come up with rules that comply, then they are going to lose the money.”<\/p>\n

During an Austin City Council meeting on Thursday, councilmembers met in an executive session to discuss “legal issues related to SB 4,” according to the agenda. Senate Bill 4, which passed in 2017, limits so-called “sanctuary city” policies, which impact how local law enforcement can or cannot cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

Critics of Abbott’s push include his opponent in the 2026 gubernatorial race, Democratic State Rep. Gina Hinojosa.<\/p>\n

“Why is he threatening our well-being and our safety? This is just political theater at a time when Texans have no more to give,” Hinojosa said at a press conference on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Mark P. Jones, political science professor at Rice University, said Austin has less to lose than Houston if it does not comply with the agreement.<\/p>\n

“I think in the case of Austin, the amount of money is much lower than the case in Houston or Dallas, so I could see the Austin City Council, being as progressive as it is, drawing a line in the sand and being willing to risk the money,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The City of Austin said Governor Greg Abbott’s office has extended its Thursday deadline to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-264171","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\/264171","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=264171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}