Houston Mayor opposes ordinance to codify HPD and ICE restrictions

Houston Mayor John Whitmire has expressed opposition to a proposal by three city council members to turn his recent executive order into a permanent municipal ordinance. Council members Alejandra Salinas, Edward Pollard, and Tiffany Thomas seek to codify restrictions on communication between the Houston Police Department (HPD) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to prevent future administrations from altering the policy.

Whitmire’s existing executive order, EO 1-74, limits HPD contact with ICE to specific circumstances. Under this policy, officers are prohibited from contacting ICE solely because an individual possesses an administrative immigration warrant, which does not carry the same weight as a criminal arrest warrant issued by a judge. For example, an individual cited for a minor traffic violation must be allowed to leave without HPD notifying ICE based on their immigration status.

Contact with ICE is only permitted when two simultaneous conditions are met: the individual must be entering a municipal or county jail following an arrest for new criminal charges or pending judicial arrest warrants, and a query through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) must confirm an active administrative arrest warrant from ICE. The Mayor warned that codifying these restrictions into municipal law could create legal conflicts with Texas state legislation.