Harris County’s long-simmering debate over how closely local law enforcement should work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is about to move squarely into the spotlight. On Thursday, Commissioners Court is scheduled to take up an item on the county’s cooperation with ICE, a move prompted by Houston City Council’s recent decision to scale back how the Houston Police Department works with federal immigration agents.
The agenda item, added by Commissioner Rodney Ellis, appears on the court’s posted docket, according to the Houston Chronicle. So far, the official documentation is thin. County leaders have not said whether this will be a purely informational briefing or the opening round of a push for formal policy changes.
What City Council changed
Houston City Council voted 12-5 to rein in HPD’s cooperation with ICE by scrapping the so-called 30-minute waiting rule and requiring regular reports on how often officers contact federal immigration authorities, as reported by Axios Houston. The original, more sweeping proposal would have explicitly given individual officers discretion on whether to call ICE at all, but the city attorney flagged that provision as legally vulnerable, and it never made it to a vote.
HPD guidance still in place
In the meantime, city officials and HPD leadership have told officers to keep following the old guidance while lawyers sort out what the new ordinance actually means in practice. Under those earlier directives, a sergeant must verify any administrative warrant and ICE is given about 30 minutes to respond, according to FOX 26 Houston. Police leaders have acknowledged the new rules could force policy changes inside the department, but they have not publicly committed to when HPD’s rulebook might be updated.
County role and jail transfers
Harris County’s role is even more direct, thanks largely to its massive jail system. County jail staff transferred roughly 15 people a day to ICE last year, about 5,400 individuals in total, and the sheriff’s office says it does not have a written policy governing day-to-day cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to reporting in the San Antonio Express-News. The county’s eight constables are operating under a patchwork of approaches, with some offices routinely coordinating with ICE and others declining to contact federal agents when only administrative warrants are involved.
Legal stakes for local officials
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already signaled he is watching closely. He has warned that efforts to limit cooperation with ICE could run afoul of a 2017 state law that bans local policies that “prohibit or materially limit” the enforcement of immigration laws, and said on a Houston-area radio program that his office “will begin pursuing our options,” according to the Houston Chronicle. That sets up the possibility of legal challenges or state action if Harris County adopts rules that the attorney general decides cross that line.
What to watch Thursday
The Commissioners Court meeting will take place at the Harris County Administration Building at 1001 Preston St., where the public can attend on the first floor or stream the proceedings online, according to the Harris County Office of County Administration. County officials and attorneys could use the ICE agenda item to brief commissioners on the legal landscape, spell out current practices in the sheriff’s office and preview whether a concrete policy proposal might land on the court’s agenda in the coming weeks.
