Houston police officers will no longer call federal immigration agents during traffic stops and other routine encounters just because a database check shows an immigration warrant, under an executive order Mayor John Whitmire signed on Friday, November 6.
Under the order, officers may contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, only when two things are both true. The person must already be going to jail on new criminal charges or another criminal warrant, and a search of the National Crime Information Center database must show a match for an ICE administrative warrant. An administrative warrant is a civil paper issued by immigration officials. It is not a criminal warrant signed by a judge.
The order, numbered EO 1-74, states the rule in its own words. "Department personnel shall contact ICE regarding a person only if that person is already going to jail on new charges or other warrants and has a positive National Crime Information Center (NCIC) hit for an ICE administrative warrant," it says. It also says that being, or being suspected of being, subject to immigration enforcement, on its own, "shall not, by itself, be a basis to contact ICE, to prolong any detention, or to take any person into or hold any person in custody."
"You write a citation or you warn them, and they go about their way," Whitmire told the Associated Press. "No contact with ICE over nonviolent, non-jailable offenses." He added: "If they're charged with a new crime, we'll let ICE know as we get them to the jailhouse."
Whitmire, a Democrat, tied the decision directly to Tuesday's elections, in which Democrats swept statewide offices in Texas. "I've said many times, elections matter," he said. He said he had spoken with the state's incoming governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller before acting, and that the aim is to reduce fear and anxiety across Houston, the most populous city in Texas. The city would go after people "that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education," he said. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, whose win helped prompt the move, does not take office until January.
Police Chief J. Noe Diaz stood with the mayor and backed the change. "HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested," Diaz said. The order took effect at once, and the department began putting it into practice.
The order does not stop ICE from operating in Houston on its own. It also does not change what happens after a person is booked into the Harris County jail. Decisions about holding people there for federal agents rest with the county, not with city police.
The Department of Homeland Security criticized the move within hours. "We remain disappointed that sanctuary politicians seek to limit cooperation with ICE, as our law enforcement are simply fulfilling their sworn duties to serve and protect our communities," a department spokesperson said. The spokesperson warned that when local police are barred from working with federal agents, federal officers keep a more visible presence so they can find people in the community. Douglas Griffith, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said he was surprised by the decision and questioned why the city did not wait for the state Legislature to take up the issue.
The order also sets up a fresh test of state law. Senate Bill 4, a law Texas passed in 2017, bars cities from adopting policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Whitmire, who voted against that law when he was a state senator, argues that his order fits it because it keeps enforcement aimed at people charged with crimes. Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment about Friday's order. In April, Abbott threatened to cut more than $110 million in state public safety funding after Houston's City Council approved similar limits, and Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the city, and the council backed down. Both men are now on their way out. Abbott lost his bid for a fourth term on Tuesday, and Paxton lost his run for the U.S. Senate the same night.
Immigrant advocates, who had pressed the mayor on this issue for months, welcomed the order but said it came late. "Today Houston won. Today our community can breathe easier," said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of FIEL Houston, an immigrant rights group. Espinosa said the change should have been made months ago, when the City Council first approved similar limits, and his group repeated its broader call for ICE to leave Houston. "It means that the mom taking her kid to school is not going to have a panic attack every time she sees HPD," he said. Houston immigration lawyer Ruby Powers sounded a note of patience. "It will probably take some time for the Houston immigrant community to truly feel a little bit safer than they did before this executive order took place," she said.
The fight over the policy has run all year. The police department's own reports show that officers contacted ICE nearly 200 times from April through September, and handed at least 36 people directly to federal agents. Some of those contacts came after people called for help, including in a suicide attempt and a domestic violence case, according to records obtained by Houston Public Media. The debate has also played out against two violent incidents involving ICE in Houston this year. An agent fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a longtime Houston resident, in July. Another agent has been indicted after prosecutors said he struck Miguel Parra Hernandez with his vehicle and broke his leg. ICE has denied that the officer hit Parra Hernandez on purpose.
Sources: the text of Executive Order EO 1-74 as quoted by Houston Public Media, and reporting by the Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, the Houston Chronicle and KPRC 2.
