Houston Mayor John Whitmire took a significant step and did not try to distance it from the midterm election result. He ordered the city’s police department to limit cooperation with ICE, saying the move would reduce fear among immigrant communities following the Democrats’ victory in Texas elections. “I do this to begin a healing process,” he said.Whitmire announced the change on Friday, November 6, days after Democrats secured major victories in the November 3 midterm elections, including Gina Hinojosa’s defeat of Republican Governor Greg Abbott and James Talarico defeating Republican Ken Paxton in the US Senate race. The victories ended Republicans’ decades-long dominance of statewide offices and changed the political equation for Democratic leaders in the state.“I’ve said many times, elections matter,” Whitmire said while announcing the new policy. He said the decision was intended to “reduce fear and anxiety” in Houston, Texas’ most populous city.Under the revised policy, Houston police officers conducting routine traffic stops or detaining someone for other reasons will no longer be allowed to notify ICE solely because the individual is subject to a civil immigration warrant. Officers can notify ICE if the person is also arrested and charged with an offence that carries the possibility of jail time.“This is the right thing to do at the right time,” Whitmire said, adding that he hoped the executive order would become a model for other cities in Texas.Houston Police Chief J Noe Diaz, who joined the mayor at the announcement, said he supported the change and that the department had already begun implementing the new policy.Whitmire said the decision was taken after consultations with Texas’ newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller. He said the administration wanted to ensure that immigrants who were working, studying or living with their families did not have to fear routine interactions with local police.“We don’t want people to worry about their workers, their family members, their students,” he said.The mayor also argued that the revised approach was consistent with the stated objective of Texas’ Senate Bill 4, which was introduced to prevent so-called sanctuary city policies and target people who commit crimes while in the country illegally.Whitmire, a Democrat who opposed the legislation as a Texas state senator in 2017, had previously backed away from a similar effort to restrict police cooperation with ICE after Abbott threatened to withhold at least $110 million in public safety grants from Houston.The threat came when Houston City Council members sought to introduce a local ordinance giving police officers discretion not to notify ICE when detaining someone subject to a civil immigration warrant. The city eventually withdrew the contentious provision after facing the prospect of losing state funding.However, Whitmire said the political situation had changed following Tuesday’s election results. Abbott lost his bid for a fourth term to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who is set to become Texas’ first Latina governor and the first Democrat to hold the office in more than three decades.The mayor said he was no longer concerned about possible retaliation from the outgoing Republican administration.The policy change comes amid growing tensions over immigration enforcement in Houston, where immigrant-rights groups have accused local police cooperation with ICE of creating fear in immigrant neighbourhoods.Cesar Espinosa, executive director of Houston-based immigrant-rights organisation FIEL, said the previous arrangement had made residents afraid of routine traffic stops and even reporting crimes. He said some residents avoided going to grocery stores because they feared being stopped by police and referred to immigration authorities.
