Houston mayor's order limits police, ICE contact | What's Your Point?

Fox - 26 Houston
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1 Video View·Nov 8, 2026
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Welcome back. Elections have consequences,
and this one is no different. Houston Mayor
John Whitmire announcing
an executive order substantially limiting HPD cooperation with ICE.
It's to reduce the fear and anxiety,
and not just in some of our communities, across Houston.
We don't want people to worry about their workers,
their family members,
their students. This really unifies Houston.
Panel with new Democratic leadership soon to take the helm in Austin.
The city is no longer under threat of losing hundreds
of millions of dollars in state grants
due to a lack of compliance with controversial Senate Bill 4,
mandating cooperation with ICE.
All right. You think this was a dumb move
or a move that will not be viewed?
Favorably by the electorate.
No one can accuse John Whitmire of being dumb.
He's one of the most savvy politicians we have in Texas,
certainly in Houston.
But I think it is transparent here that this is a flip flop.
This is he ran by saying I'm the Republican whisperer.
I'm in with Abbott and I have good relationships over there.
And the second Greg Abbott's political body isn't even cold yet.
And he's already saying that,
now I'm a good standing Democrat with Gina Hinojosa,
and I'm getting right on immigration. No one believes this.
All right, as a citizen of the city of Houston, thoughts?
This is raw politics.
Whitmire has been between a rock and a hard place,
which is the rock is Abbott.
And the hard place are these liberal Democrats. And he's
been torn between the two.
And now Abbott's gone, and so he can dance a little bit to the left.
And make some people happy, and so I think it's just raw politics.
Yeah, no, I think it's a smart move, maybe a little bit too late.
However, our city needs to start healing, I agree with you.
Folks are tired of the division and the hate
and the anger, the frustration.
We need to somehow figure out to work together.
But there's something that's missing, the big picture.
The Chronicle reported 0.0617 out
of 87 that were ICE detainees by HPD,
300 arrests, 87.
17 go get arrested, turn into ICE, and these,
I'm assuming, are very dangerous, undocumented folks.
Point 006, the big picture out of the 4,000 from June,
July to September that were arrested
and went to Harris County Jail
and Harris County turned them over to ICE.
Where is the bulk of those arrests happening?
All the surrounding law enforcement, the constables,
the small towns that arrest people, 3,000.
873, we need to get a snapshot
and see where the bulk of their coming and let them know
that we're not happy with that either.
Transparency is always good, Bill, your thoughts here?
I think if you talk to most law enforcement
officers, they'll tell you that they don't
want to do immigration law,
and I think it's a bad idea for them to do it.
The local governments have been forced
into this through the Trump administration.
Now they're not going to have to do that anymore.
But I'm going to get back to the fact that in the entire history,
HPD has turned over
about 100 people,
and we've turned over 15,000 at the county over the last three years.
So if you're going to criticize it, let's criticize everybody for it.
That's my point.
Exactly my point.
We need a big snapshot.
And by the way, we don't have any idea
of what Harris County Sheriff's Office with the constables
because they don't keep records of it.
All right, still ahead, a very bad night for Texas school districts
pushing billions of dollars of bond debt.
What's behind the loud message?
No más.
