Abbott threatens to cut Houston grants over new ICE ordinance

Greg Abbott’s office moved to use $110 million in state public safety grants as leverage against Houston after city leaders rewrote how police interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, escalating a fight that now reaches from immigration enforcement to local control of the police budget.

Houston City Council approved the ordinance in a 12-5 vote, with Alejandra Salinas, Abbie Kamin and Edward Pollard sponsoring the measure. The new rules ended a prior Houston Police Department practice that required officers to wait up to 30 minutes for federal immigration agents to respond to civil immigration warrants. Under the revised policy, HPD officers may not detain someone longer than reasonably necessary for the original stop or investigation based only on an ICE administrative warrant, and the department must report quarterly to city council on its interactions with ICE.

The Public Safety Office of the Governor warned Mayor John Whitmire that Houston could lose the grants unless the city confirmed by April 20 that it would not enforce the ordinance and would move to repeal it. The state said the measure breached an April 15, 2025 certification tied to the money, in which Houston agreed to fully participate in Homeland Security procedures, notify the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about undocumented immigrants in HPD custody, and avoid policies that limit or impede detainer requests. State officials said the ordinance could jeopardize grant agreements for fiscal year 2026, trigger termination of the funding, and require repayment within 30 days.

Whitmire called the dispute a "crisis situation" and said losing state aid would hit the Houston Police and Fire Departments, emergency preparedness and major-event security. He also said the threat could affect planning for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Whitmire supported the ordinance, saying he believed it matched HPD’s current practices and civil-rights protections.

Councilmember Twila Carter, who voted against the measure, said the funding warning was unsurprising. Salinas called Abbott’s move "an attempt to bully our city for doing what is right" and said the ordinance was lawful. Pollard urged Whitmire to fight back and defend the council vote and the city attorney’s directive.

The pressure from Austin deepened days after the council vote when Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation into whether the ordinance violates Senate Bill 4, warning Houston would not "get away" with it. Together, the funding threat and the legal probe show how Texas is using money and state power to force local police policy toward immigration enforcement, even as Houston argues the ordinance protects civil rights and trust in immigrant neighborhoods.