It will test John Whitmire; he can win only with Republican support, but he also needs Latino support. My bet is that he thinks he can buy off the elected leaders and still use them to get Latino support. So where will he hide his feelings?
Abbott Is Leaving. What Is Whitmire’s Excuse Now?
Greg Abbott is leaving the governor’s office in January, and John Whitmire is about to lose a convenient place to hide. With Gina Hinojosa elected governor, Houstonians should ask a simple question: will the mayor change HPD’s cooperation with ICE, or will he find another excuse for keeping it?
Abbott’s pressure was real. In April, his office threatened more than $110 million in public safety grants after City Council approved limits on HPD’s cooperation with ICE. But Whitmire’s administration was part of the response: according to The Texas Tribune, the mayor’s staff negotiated revised language with the governor’s office, and council approved it. Houston deserves to know which concessions Whitmire intends to revisit when Abbott no longer occupies that office.
Whitmire’s own words give us a standard by which to judge him. In a March announcement, he said that “HPD officers are not immigration or ICE officers.” Then explain why Houston police should spend their time holding people for immigration agents when there are no local criminal charges.
The department’s April 23 written directive describes that very situation. It requires officers who encounter an ICE administrative warrant in the national database to contact ICE and bring a sergeant to the scene. If ICE requests a field handoff, the directive says the sergeant should authorize a reasonable wait for an agent to take custody. Calling that cooperation something other than immigration enforcement does not answer the question of what Houston officers are actually doing.
The numbers describe people, not merely a small percentage of police activity. HPD’s latest quarterly report, covering July through September, records 88 immigration-related database hits or ICE contacts: 58 people released at the scene, 17 transferred to ICE, and 13 jailed on separate charges. It lists an average detention of 46 minutes. That average does not establish that every detention was unlawful, but it certainly justifies asking what officers were doing during those minutes and what legal authority supported each detention.
A new governor will not erase existing law. Texas Government Code Section 752.053, part of the 2017 SB 4 law, restricts local policies limiting immigration enforcement and cooperation. Whitmire should identify precisely what those restrictions require, explain which parts of HPD’s policy reflect city decisions, and work with the incoming governor and City Council to change what can lawfully be changed.
He can also stop treating public questions as an inconvenience. Publish clear explanations of detention decisions, account for officers’ time, and explain how the department will protect the trust of people who need police assistance. Houstonians should be able to understand the policy without having to choose between the mayor’s assurances and the department’s written instructions.
Abbott’s departure will test Whitmire’s explanation for what Houston has been doing. If state pressure drove these decisions, show us what changes when that pressure changes. If the mayor wants the policy to continue, let him defend it as his own.
Abbott is leaving. Whitmire will still be Houston’s mayor, and he will still owe Houston an answer.