Houston mayor limits police cooperation with ICE after Democrats' win

Mayor John Whitmire ordered police to stop contacting immigration officials solely on suspicion of illegal immigration, saying the move would reduce fear in the community

By Joe Lovinger

 

Houston Mayor John Whitmire ordered the city’s police to limit cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying “elections matter” days after Democrats swept to power across Texas.   

City police officers should no longer contact ICE if they suspect a person may be an undocumented immigrant, Whitmire said in an executive order Friday. Police will now only alert immigration officials about people brought up on new charges and with outstanding ICE administrative warrants. 

 

“I do this to begin a healing process, reduce fear and anxiety across our community,” Whitmire, a Democrat, said Friday at a press conference announcing the order. “I also do this knowing that elections matter.”

 

 

The order marks the first major policy shift by a Texas elected official after Tuesday’s landslide for Democrats, who won every statewide office and flipped several congressional seats held by the GOP. The mayor’s announcement came on the same day President Donald Trump named Stephen Miller, the architect of his administration’s immigration crackdown, as his chief of staff, signaling no change in the hardline approach. 

 

“Deportations will continue,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a social media post earlier this week.   

 

Whitmire said he has been in contact with several of the winning Democratic candidates, who told him the state’s Senate Bill 4, which prohibited “sanctuary city” policies, wasn’t a priority. Governor Greg Abbott’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.  

 

Earlier this year, immigration agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican construction worker, during a traffic stop in Houston. The killing sparked protests across the city and became a campaign issue for Democrats as they slammed Trump’s immigration enforcement measures.