Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to pull more than $100 million in public safety grants for Houston unless the city repeals an ordinance that established guidelines for local police to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Republican’s threat is potentially catastrophic for Houston — and more than a little hypocritical in light of his previous rebukes of civil rights activists who have called to “defund the police,” a phrase meant to promote reallocating portions of policing budgets to social programs.
On Monday, the governor sent a letter to Houston’s conservative-leaning Democratic mayor, John Whitmire, declaring that his office would require repayment of $110 million in state grants unless city officials vowed not to enforce — and agreed to overturn — a new ordinance mandating that police officers cannot prolong field encounters, such as traffic stops, longer than necessary when someone has an administrative warrant issued by ICE.
One might say it seems like a reasonable requirement, considering ICE’s central role in Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown, which a federal judge — a Ronald Reagan appointee, at that — has compared to the Ku Klux Klan’s roving patrols.
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Noting the irony of Abbott’s threat, the Houston Chronicle’s editorial board published an op-ed titled “Gov. Abbott, don’t defund the police.”
Houston’s mayor supported the ordinance but now says he wants it repealed. On Tuesday, he expressed feelings of futility and scheduled a special meeting for Friday, during which he hopes the council will repeal the ordinance.
According to Houston Public Media:
‘Yes, I voted for it last week because it was the right thing to do,’ Whitmire said on Tuesday. ‘It’s been rejected by people that control our purse strings. So, a reasonable thing to do is to revisit it, discuss it, pass an ordinance that will comply with state law under the judgment of the governor’s criminal justice department. … It will hurt Houston every minute that we don’t resolve it.’
In this case, Abbott is essentially threatening public safety unless Houston officials agree to let police enjoy unfettered collaboration with an agency that has, in multiple high-profile incidents, shown itself to be a threat to public safety. And he’s also engaging in a disturbing practice we’re beginning to see more often in GOP-led states, in which conservative leaders look to usurp local officials’ powers to run their cities — and in particular, their police forces — as they see fit.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.