Two weeks ago, the Houston City Council passed an ordinance removing the requirement that Houston police officers wait 30 minutes for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to take custody of someone held on a nonjudicial administrative warrant. Under the change, if ICE agents did not arrive within that time, officers were to document the person’s information and release them.
But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) warned city officials that the new ordinance and its limitation on cooperating with ICE agents violated the terms of $110 million in state grants Houston had received for police and security during the World Cup games the city is hosting in June.
Gov. Abbott's office told Houston it would withhold those state public safety grants, which included money tied to Houston police operations, unless the city repealed or significantly rolled back the ordinance.
The state also warned the city it could be required to repay funds already received if it was found out of compliance with state requirements.
Critics called it political coercion or bullying, but the city council took Gov. Abbott's threat seriously and quickly amended the ordinance — after negotiations involving the mayor's office and the governor’s public safety team.
"Texas has anti-sanctuary policies, and last time I checked, Houston was still part of Texas," notes Ira Mehlman, media director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). "This comes down to supremacy. State law takes precedence over these local government ordinances and laws."
He says there are "too many examples" of what happens when local governments thwart immigration enforcement, refusing to hand over deportable aliens they have arrested.
"You have to cooperate, and you cannot impede federal immigration enforcement," Mehlman asserts. "You should have law enforcement at all levels of government cooperating with one another because it's in the interest of public safety."
He says it is simply a matter of common sense.
