Houston Mayor John Whitmire announced Thursday that a special called city council meeting scheduled for Friday has been postponed after Gov. Greg Abbott’s office agreed to extend the city’s deadline to respond to a state funding freeze tied to its immigration ordinance.
The original deadline was April 20. Abbott’s office has since extended it to April 22, which is when the council already has its regularly scheduled weekly meeting. The dispute centers on a city ordinance passed April 8 by a 12-5 council vote that eliminated a prior requirement that Houston Police Department officers hold individuals for up to 30 minutes to allow Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents time to respond.
Meanwhile, the Harris County Commissioners Court took up its own version of the debate Thursday.
Commissioner Rodney Ellis of Precinct 1 had placed an item on the agenda to develop voluntary guidelines for how county law enforcement agencies interact with ICE. The court took no action on it. Ellis instead asked the county attorney to review the matter and return with guidance at a later date. “I won’t give them a deadline, but I’ll just say, do it with all deliberate speed,” Ellis said.
Commissioner Tom Ramsey of Precinct 3 criticized the move, warning that the county could put an estimated $60 million in state grants tied to ICE cooperation at risk. “It doesn’t make any sense with FIFA coming and all the state grants we have associated with FIFA for us to try and get in a fight with the state,” Ramsey said.
County Judge Lina Hidalgo said Thursday the court discussion amounted to an evaluation rather than a policy shift. She noted that Harris County’s independently elected law enforcement officials, including Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and eight constables, operate outside the court’s direct authority. “We cannot tell them what to do or what not to do,” she said. Because Ellis’ proposed guidelines would have been voluntary, none of those agencies would have been required to adopt them.
Under Houston’s new policy, a stop ends when its original lawful basis ends.
Whitmire voted in favor of the ordinance but reversed course days later after the state threatened to pull funding.
The grants at risk total $114 million, according to a city document, and include $65 million for FIFA World Cup security, $21 million for high-threat and high-density area programs, $16 million for counter-drone efforts, and $10 million for equipment. Abbott’s Public Safety Office director Andrew Friedrichs sent Whitmire a letter Monday stating the city was out of compliance with its grant agreements. The city’s accounts were effectively frozen that afternoon.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who had previously announced an investigation into whether the ordinance violates state law, escalated that effort Thursday, filing a lawsuit against the city in Fort Bend County. The suit argues the ordinance violates the state prohibition on local governments adopting policies that “prohibit or materially limit” cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and asks the court to declare the ordinance invalid and order Houston officials to repeal it and halt implementation.
“I will not allow any local official to push sanctuary policies that make our communities less safe,” Paxton said.
For the council to repeal the ordinance, it would first need to suspend its own rules by a two-thirds vote, or 12 members, since the council cannot reconsider a policy change within 90 days of passage under normal procedures. If that threshold is met, a simple majority of nine members would then be required to actually revoke the policy.
The dispute has since widened beyond Houston.
On Thursday, Friedrichs sent similar warning letters to Austin and Dallas.
Austin’s police department updated its general orders in March to prohibit officers from arresting individuals solely on the basis of ICE administrative warrants and to require supervisory approval before notifying federal authorities. That policy puts approximately $2.5 million in state grant funding at risk for Austin.
Dallas faces a far steeper potential loss: the state says the city received roughly $32.1 million in Public Safety Office grant funding for fiscal year 2026 and could also lose an additional $55.1 million tied to FIFA World Cup preparations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Both cities were given until April 23 to respond.
No ads. No paywalls. No government grants. No corporate masters.
Just real news for real Texans.
Support Texas Scorecard to keep it that way!
