Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order on November 6, 2026, directing the city’s police department to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities so that officers contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only when a person is arrested for a jailable offense.
The policy reversal follows statewide Democratic victories in the midterm elections, shifting the political dynamics that previously forced city leaders to align with stricter enforcement mandates. Under the new directive, routine traffic stops and nonviolent contacts will no longer trigger immigration notifications. Elections matter,
Mayor John Whitmire told reporters.
New Restrictions on Houston Police Department Notifications
The updated rules mean Houston Police Department officers will not contact federal authorities simply because an individual has an administrative immigration warrant, according to Community Impact. For example, if our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day,
said Houston Police Chief Noe Diaz. HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested.
Whitmire stated that he issued the directive to begin a healing process and reduce anxiety across the city, noting that he consulted incoming state leaders before taking action. Chief Diaz joined the mayor at the press conference and confirmed that his department had already started implementing the new policy.
The decision reverses a previous framework put in place by Whitmire in April under pressure from outgoing Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Abbott had threatened to withdraw roughly $110 million in state public safety grants, arguing that a city council ordinance limiting police contacts breached Senate Bill 4, a 2017 state law barring local police from restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also filed a lawsuit against the mayor, city council, and police chief over the ordinance. In the recent midterm elections, however, Democrat James Talarico won a Texas Senate seat, while Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Abbott in the race for governor, making Hinojosa Texas’s first Latina governor and the first member of her party to hold the office in more than 30 years.
Immigration enforcement policies in Houston have drawn intense public scrutiny following several high-profile incidents. The Houston Chronicle reported that city police contacted ICE at least 107 times during the first eight months of 2025, compared with nine times in the whole of 2024. In July, an ICE agent shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a longtime Houston resident, during an operation in the city. The fatal shooting marked the first such incident involving U.S. immigration officers since two January killings in Minneapolis that drew national headlines. In a separate incident, an ICE officer struck a man with a vehicle, leading a grand jury in Houston to indict the officer on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Political Shifts Across Texas Cities
The policy change in Houston aligns with broader political movements across Texas following the midterm elections. In Austin, Mayor Kirk Watson asked Police Chief Lisa Davis and City Manager T.C. to revise local police rules regarding immigration encounters so the city can work with the state without threats or undue pressure on civil immigration enforcement. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones announced she will ask City Manager Erik Walsh to explore options for ending the police department’s cooperation with ICE, arguing that police officers should focus on core public safety missions rather than responsibilities they are not trained for.
Federal Response to City Policy Changes
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security criticized the decision, arguing that local partnerships remain vital for arresting criminal offenders and citing the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause to assert that sanctuary politicians do not control federal law enforcement. 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 DHS spokesperson said in a statement.
Immigrant rights advocates welcomed the shift in Houston. Cesar Espinosa, executive director of the immigrant rights group FIEL Houston, called the executive order a victory for the city, stating that their community can finally breathe easier, though he added that the action was long overdue. The organization planned to hold a press conference on Friday afternoon alongside the family of Parra Hernandez to celebrate the announcement.
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