Houston Council Revises Immigration Policy

It's April 22nd, I'm Cory with the story, and this is El Paso News today, local news

powered by AI.

Houston City Council just wrapped up two days of intense debate and voted 13 to 4 to

approve a revised policy on how local cops team up with, federal immigration agents.

This tweet came right after Governor Greg Abbott threatened to yank over $110 million in

public safety funding from the city.

The original ordinance passed on April 8th, barred police from holding folks based

solely on civil immigration warrants.

But Abbott's pushback forced this quick revision, which now lets officers detain someone

only if it's truly needed for the reason they were stopped, or investigated in the first

place.

Mayor John Whitmire praised it, saying the change sticks to the law, guards the Fourth

Amendment rights, and keeps the city's cash flow safe.

Residents like Marion Wright back that up, stressing no one can trample those constitutional

protections anyway.

A few council members insisted the update doesn't really shift much from the first version,

keeping Houston in charge of its own streets.

Community leaders like Chris Wright agreed, arguing the city followed all rules in limiting

federal cooperation.

Still, critics including Bishop James Dixon from the NAACP Houston branch worry the language

stays too fuzzy, potentially opening doors to more state.

Abbott's team called it a solid step forward, but everyone's watching if this fully dodges

the funding acts and sparks bigger talks on local verses.

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