No Borders NewsHouston City Council voted 12–5 to approve an ordinance aimed at limiting how the Houston Police Department (HPD) works with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The measure is described as protecting Fourth Amendment rights, increasing transparency, and setting legal limits on HPD’s interactions with federal immigration enforcement.
According to the report, the ordinance removes a requirement that officers wait 30 minutes for federal agents to pick up people on certain non-criminal ICE administrative warrants. It also requires police leadership to document HPD’s cooperation with ICE, which would make that coordination easier to track and review.
The excerpt says Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, supported the ordinance as well. It also characterizes the change as a significant reduction in immigration enforcement cooperation between HPD and ICE, with the goal of reducing situations where immigration enforcement actions may involve unlawful conduct.
The same source says top Texas leadership is responding with pressure tactics, including threats to withdraw millions in grant funds and to sue the city if the ordinance is not revoked. The excerpt frames this as backlash because local officials chose to support immigrant communities.
Community advocates quoted in the excerpt say the ordinance is meant to help families feel safer and more secure in everyday life, and to ensure people can exercise constitutional rights. The Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) is the organization publishing the statement linked in the official source.