Houston mayor limits police cooperation with ICE after blue wave

Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he would reduce the city’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, just days after Democrats seized all Texas statewide offices and both chambers of Congress.Whitmire, a centrist Democrat, had previously acquiesced to threats from state Republicans to strip the city of funding if he didn’t cooperate with ICE.He previously attempted to curtail cooperation with ICE earlier this year, but his directive was held to be a violation of Texas law. Whitmire said the new Democratic government wouldn’t enforce the bill, allowing him to change course. The mayor of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States, acknowledged the timing of his move, crediting it to Tuesday’s results.“I also do this knowing elections matter,” Whitmire said. “I’ve been in contact with the new statewide elected officials, and SB 4 is not a priority of the new statewide elected officials.”His new executive order, issued Friday, directed the Houston Police Department to contact ICE only when an illegal immigrant is arrested on a crime punishable by imprisonment. The person also must have an ICE warrant. The city’s police department was ordered not to contact ICE if someone is arrested for a nonviolent crime. In those cases, they will instead be cited and released.He justified the order on public safety and limited resource grounds, arguing that the “finite” law enforcement resources are best used “investigating and deterring violent crime.”The city, Whitmire argued, needed “the trust and cooperation of all residents.”The directive has gone out to all Houston Police Department offices, and will be read at the beginning of every shift’s roll call.TRUMP REBUKES SENATE AFTER MIDTERM ROMP: ‘IT’S JUST KILLING OUR COUNTRY’Whitmire’s order is one of the first concrete stings to President Donald Trump’s agenda following the midterm elections, and shows the impending costs of losing control of the government to the front line of the fight against illegal immigration. Outgoing Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX), who lost his bid for a fourth term Tuesday, is a staunch ally of the president on immigration and previously threatened to withhold more than $100 million of public safety funding if Whitmire did not cooperate with ICE.After Tuesday’s results, Democrats now control every state legislature and governorship of all states along the U.S.-Mexico border, complicating Trump’s immigration efforts.