Mayor Whitmire directs HPD to reduce ICE cooperation after midterms

Who's involved

• John Whitmire · Houston Mayor^[1]
• Greg Abbott · Texas Governor^[1]

The facts

1. Mayor Whitmire issued an executive order on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, directing HPD to contact ICE only when a person with an administrative ICE warrant is charged with a jailable offense.^[1]
2. In April 2026, Whitmire joined Houston City Council members in an effort to curtail HPD coordination with federal immigration agents by giving officers discretion over whether to contact ICE about civil immigration warrants and prohibiting detention for those warrants.^[1]
3. Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to revoke more than $110 million in public safety funding in response to the April 2026 effort to reduce ICE cooperation.^[1]
4. Whitmire and the city council reversed the April 2026 measure, requiring officers to detain immigrants for a 'reasonable' amount of time while waiting for ICE agents to respond to warrants.^[1]
5. An ordinance requiring HPD to provide regular reports on ICE interactions survived the reversal. According to the department's first two reports, officers contacted ICE nearly 200 times from April through September 2026, including at least 36 instances in which HPD officers handed people directly to ICE.^[1]
6. According to records obtained by Houston Public Media, some ICE contact incidents came after people called emergency services for help, including for a suicide attempt and domestic violence.^[1]

Who said what

• Mayor John Whitmire This is the right thing to do at the right time. I believe this will be the model for Texas cities.^[1]
• Whitmire's staff Passed out a memo to city council members detailing that a battle with the state would cost the city funding in the future, citing more than $260 million in direct appropriations to Houston from the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature in 2025.^[1]