I start my day by reading the news; I normally start with national news and then move on to local news. A passage in an editorial in the Houston Chronicle got my undivided attention. I don’t know if they realized that they had painted the Mayor of Houston as a sheep.
Quorum Report’s Harvey Kronberg and Scott Braddock explained it well this week: “For the last 12 years, the Republican senators have embarrassed themselves and the party as sheep dominated by one man and one operation.
For yee of the Whitmire is a god type, open your eyes, how could he not have been a sheep and keep a committee chair under Dan Patrick
Dan Patrick lost to Vikki Goodwin on Tuesday. By Friday, John Whitmire had decided Houston police could stop calling ICE about civil immigration warrants when the person was otherwise free to go. “Elections matter,” the mayor said. I agree. Houston held one of its own in 2023, and I thought we’d elected somebody to make decisions for Houston. KUT on Patrick’s defeat · The Texas Tribune on Whitmire’s order.
Harvey Kronberg and Scott Braddock wrote this week about Republican senators who spent 12 years behaving “as sheep dominated by one man and one operation.” They were talking about Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his Republican senators. Whitmire was a Democrat in that chamber for four decades. He spent his last nine years in the Senate under Patrick, who kept him as chair of Criminal Justice in Whitmire’s final session. I think Whitmire brought the habit of deferring to Republican leaders in Austin with him to City Hall. Quorum Report · Texas Legislative Reference Library · Patrick’s 2023 committee assignments.
In April, Whitmire backed an ordinance limiting when Houston police could hold people for ICE. It passed 12–5. Abbott threatened to pull $114 million in public safety grants, and Attorney General Ken Paxton sued. Two weeks after the original vote, the city backed down. A hundred and fourteen million dollars is real money, and any mayor would have to weigh the threat. Houstonians had to live with the policy that came out of that negotiation. From July through September, HPD turned 17 people over to ICE, and 58 others were released at the scene after police contacted ICE. The Houston Chronicle on the April reversal · HPD’s quarterly figures.
Gina Hinojosa beat Abbott the same night Goodwin beat Patrick. Abbott was still governor when Whitmire signed the November 6 order, and Senate Bill 4 was still on the books. Under the new order, an officer who encounters a civil immigration warrant can contact ICE about it only if the person is already going to jail on new charges or a criminal warrant or similar court process. An officer writing a traffic ticket can finish the stop and let the driver go. Houstonians could have used that policy in April. Whitmire’s executive order · The Texas Tribune.
Now Council Members Alejandra Salinas, Edward Pollard and Tiffany Thomas want to write that rule into the city code and require more detail in HPD’s quarterly reports. Whitmire says he stands by his order but worries the ordinance could violate SB 4. The statute defines a policy to include an order as well as an ordinance. If the mayor sees a legal difference in what Council is proposing, he should put his finger on the words that make the difference. The Houston Chronicle on the proposal · Texas Government Code § 752.051.
The mayor has already put his name on the order. Will he stand behind it when Council asks for a vote, so Houston can keep the policy the next time the politics in Austin change?