Mayor John Whitmire
A day after a Chronicle report found Houston police officers in at least two instances arrested drivers and personally transported them to immigration agents, Mayor John Whitmire told Univision Houston the arrests violated department policies.
Whitmire, who hasn’t responded to requests from the Chronicle since Aug. 17, told Univision: “I’m disappointed. It was a violation of Houston Police Department policy, and it will be corrected.”
Representatives for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Chronicle as of Friday afternoon. Officials with the Houston Police Department referred questions to the mayor’s office.
The mayor’s statement comes after legal experts said the two arrests, in July and August of last year, could risk violating the U.S. Constitution and internal department policies.
Details from police reports obtained by the Chronicle show a new level of cooperation with federal officials. Houston officers called federal authorities in more than 154 cases in 2025, an increase of more than 1,000% from prior years.
See here, here, and here for some background. Other cities have a clear policy about how their police can and cannot interact with ICE, while we have mostly lived in the murkiness of Mayor Whitmire’s reluctance to say anything on the issue. What he’s saying here is correct and good and I’m glad he’s saying it, but I’m also deeply annoyed it took him this long to do so. It’s just an abdication of leadership at the worst possible time. Maybe now he can say something about this, or about any of the vast array of atrocities ICE has been committing in this city and everywhere else. The best time would have been before they happened, but the second best time is right now.