Houston mayor signs order limiting police contact with ICE

Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order limiting when city police contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, saying it is intended to reduce residents’ fear and focus enforcement on public safety. Officers generally will not alert ICE over routine traffic stops or other nonviolent, non-jailable offenses; contact is limited to arrests for jailable offenses involving an administrative ICE warrant. Decisions about responding to ICE after a qualifying arrest remain with the county jail and Harris County government. The policy follows Democrats’ major election gains in Texas, including Gina Hinojosa’s defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott, who had threatened to withhold state funding over Houston’s limits on cooperation. It also comes amid protests over ICE operations in Houston, including the fatal shooting of a Mexican construction worker and the indictment of an ICE agent accused of striking another man with a vehicle; ICE disputes prosecutors’ account.