Houston has been feuding with the state of Texas after city officials passed a controversial ordinance that limited the Houston Police Department's collaboration with federal agencies such as ICE. In response, the state froze more than $110 million in public safety grants on Tuesday, a day after Governor Greg Abbott warned to change or repeal the new immigration policy.
READ MORE: Nearly $115M in public safety funds frozen after city's immigration policy change: Mayor's office
The special meeting was postponed because the deadline to respond to the state's funding freeze was moved from Monday to Wednesday after discussions with the Governor's office, according to Whitmire. He added that the additional time will be used to continue productive discussions to strike a balance to "protect our people, essential services, and our finances."
"... This is a crisis. We have already lost state grant funding, which affects the Houston Police and Fire Departments, public safety services across our city, preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the Department of Homeland Security," Whitmire said in a statement. "Our public safety departments rely on a combination of local, state, and federal resources to operate effectively.
We are making significant progress through constructive conversations."
In an event in Crosby on Wednesday, Abbott spoke about the back-and-forth between the state and the city. He said that if Houston does not repeal the ordinance, it will be forced to find other ways to fully fund HPD, risking a violation of a law he signed against defunding the police.
"Under that law, Houston will have to find elsewhere to fully fund police. The law that I signed specifically says that grants do not count to a city's fully funding the police and does not eliminate their need to come up with money to fully fund the police," Abbott said. "So they're going to be out $110m, and after that, they're still going to have to find ways to fully fund the police in Houston like they are today, otherwise they are going to be in violation of another law in the state of Texas."
PREVIOUS REPORT: City council passes proposal clarifying how HPD responds to immigration enforcement
The city council's ordinance ruled that Houston police may detain a person only during a police encounter for a reasonable period of time to complete the legitimate purpose of the initial stop. For example, this means if someone gets stopped for a traffic violation, once a ticket is issued, they need to be let go.
A previous policy stated that if an officer found someone with an administrative warrant, they would contact ICE and detain the person for 30 minutes while waiting for an agent to arrive.