The mayor of Houston, Texas, has directed the city’s police to limit co-operation with federal immigration officials.
The move by John Whitmire, a Democrat, comes on the heels of stunning victories by the party in Texas during this week’s midterm elections. It breaks with policy set by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, who lost his re-election bid.
“I do this to begin a healing process,” Whitmire said on Friday, and to “reduce fear and anxiety across our community”. He added: “I also do this knowing that elections matter.”
There has been months of public outcry in Houston after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer fatally shot a man who was driving to work.
Houston police chief Noe Diaz said on Friday that officers will now only contact ICE if someone they arrest for a jailable offence also has an administrative ICE warrant, which are issued internally by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), within which ICE operates.
“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,” Diaz said.
Under the previous rules, Houston police officers were required to inform ICE if anyone they were dealing with came up as having one of these warrants attached to their name when they were searched on the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) – a digital database that includes records on wanted persons, stolen property, certain missing people and those arrested and fingerprinted for serious offences.
Whitmire said on Friday that he had directed the Houston Police Department to make the changes through an executive order.
He also called on Congress to change federal immigration rules, saying “ICE needs better training. They need body cameras. They need to be trained in de-escalation.”
He added, “But this can only be done in Washington. I can only control what I can control.”
