Houston Limits When Police Contact ICE: The November 6 Executive Order, What Texas Chapter 752 Still Requires, and What a Lawyer Can Review

What Changed, and When

The order. According to the news release issued by the Houston Mayor’s Office of Communications on November 6, 2026, Mayor John Whitmire “directed the Houston Police Department to issue updated guidance governing HPD’s contact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement regarding persons in custody,” and “signed an executive order on Friday limiting HPD’s interaction with ICE to focus only on cases in which there are jailable offenses.” The release states that following the executive order, HPD Police Chief Noe Diaz “sent out a department-wide memo to update the new process.” The city release does not publish an order number or the text of the order itself.

What the department describes. Chief Diaz is quoted in the city release as follows: “ICE will only be contacted if someone commits a jailable offense. This means our officers will only contact ICE if someone they arrest also has an administrative ICE warrant.” He gave this illustration in the same release: “For example, if our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives a citation and goes about their day. HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested.” The mayor is quoted in the release describing the scope the same way: “No one should have to worry about HPD conducting a warrant search, including searches involving ICE, unless an individual is being charged with a new jailable offense, including dangerous or violent crimes.”

What the release says did not change. The city release states that “HPD will continue to call ICE on suspects linked to jailable offenses, which includes violent offenders.” The change described in the release concerns people who are not arrested.

What an administrative immigration warrant is. The Texas Tribune reported on November 6, 2026 that, unlike criminal warrants signed by judges, administrative ICE warrants are issued by immigration officials and “often identify people with civil violations such as outstanding deportation orders.” The Tribune reported that more than 700,000 administrative immigration warrants were added to a national criminal database used by police departments across the country after the current presidential administration took office, and that Houston police leaders had directed officers to contact ICE when they encountered someone with one of those warrants.

How Houston got here. The Tribune reported that Houston City Council adopted an ordinance in April 2026 eliminating a policy that had required officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE agents to arrive at traffic stops; that the council later revised the ordinance; and that HPD then issued instructions requiring officers to contact ICE when they encountered someone with an administrative immigration warrant and to wait a “reasonable” amount of time for immigration agents to take custody. The Tribune also reported, citing the Houston Chronicle, that Houston police contacted ICE at least 107 times in the first eight months of 2025, compared with nine times in all of 2024, and described a reported case in which an officer called ICE after learning that a woman who had called to report a domestic violence incident had an ICE warrant in her name.

Who in Texas This Reaches

One department. The November 6 executive order is a City of Houston instrument and the guidance it directed is Houston Police Department guidance. It is not a county, state, or federal rule. It does not speak for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, a constable, a school district police department, or any other agency that operates inside Houston. A person stopped inside the city limits may be stopped by an agency other than HPD.

Austin: asked for, not yet in place. KUT reported on November 6, 2026 that Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said he is asking Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis to update her general orders, and quoted him saying he was asking for the update “so that they can be effective when the new Governor comes into office” — January 2027. KUT reported that Austin’s existing guidance has officers contact ICE about an administrative warrant “when operationally feasible,” and that APD has notified ICE where a violent-crime warrant or accusation is involved. As described in that report, no new Austin policy had been adopted.

San Antonio: an inquiry, not a policy. The San Antonio Current reported on November 6, 2026 that Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones said she will ask City Manager Erik Walsh to explore options for ending the police department’s cooperation with ICE. As described in that report, that is a request to study options rather than a change in SAPD policy.

So as of November 8, 2026, of the three cities, only Houston has a signed order and a department memo described as already issued.

What This Changes Legally

The state statute that governs local policies. Subchapter C of Chapter 752 of the Texas Government Code, added by Senate Bill 4 of the 85th Legislature and effective September 1, 2017, governs what a local entity may and may not do about immigration enforcement. Section 752.051(5)(B) defines “local entity” to include “a sheriff, municipal police department, municipal attorney, or county attorney,” and Section 752.051(6) defines “policy” to include “a formal, written rule, order, ordinance, or policy and an informal, unwritten policy.”

What Section 752.053 says. Section 752.053(a)(1) provides that a local entity “may not … adopt, enforce, or endorse a policy under which the entity or department prohibits or materially limits the enforcement of immigration laws.” Section 752.053(b) provides that a local entity may not prohibit or materially limit a commissioned peace officer, corrections officer, booking clerk, magistrate, or prosecuting attorney under its direction from: inquiring into the immigration status of “a person under a lawful detention or under arrest”; sending status information to, or requesting or receiving it from, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or ICE; “assisting or cooperating with a federal immigration officer as reasonable or necessary, including providing enforcement assistance”; or permitting a federal immigration officer to enter and conduct enforcement activities at a jail. Section 752.053(c) carves out assistance or cooperation that “occurs at a place of worship.”

What “lawful detention” means in the statute. Section 752.051(4) defines it as detention by a local entity “for the investigation of a criminal offense,” and excludes a detention if the sole reason for it is that the individual “is a victim of or witness to a criminal offense” or “is reporting a criminal offense.”

Victims and witnesses. Section 752.057 of the same chapter refers to Article 2A.059 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, under which a peace officer may not inquire into the immigration status of a victim of or witness to an alleged criminal offense unless the officer determines the inquiry is necessary to investigate the offense or to provide the person with information about federal visas designed to protect individuals who assist law enforcement. Section 752.057 permits an agency to adopt a written community-outreach policy to tell the public about that limit, with outreach to victims of family violence and sexual assault.

How Chapter 752 is enforced. Under Section 752.055, any citizen residing in a local entity’s jurisdiction may file a sworn complaint with the Texas Attorney General alleging a violation of Section 752.053, and the Attorney General may petition for a writ of mandamus or other equitable relief in a district court in Travis County or in the county of the entity’s principal office. Section 752.056 sets a civil penalty for an intentional violation of not less than $1,000 and not more than $1,500 for a first violation, and not less than $25,000 and not more than $25,500 for each subsequent violation, with each day of a continuing violation counting separately. Section 752.0565 provides that an elected or appointed officer of a political subdivision who violates Section 752.053 commits an act causing forfeiture of office.

What has not been decided. Whether the November 6 order and the guidance issued under it are consistent with Chapter 752 is a question no court has answered. As of November 8, 2026 no enforcement action over this order appeared on the Texas Attorney General’s or the Governor’s published news pages, and the Tribune reported on November 6 that the Governor’s office did not immediately respond to its request for comment. Earlier in 2026, the Tribune reported, the Governor threatened to withdraw roughly $110 million in state public safety grants from Houston over the April ordinance; KUT reported a figure of roughly $2.5 million in state grants in the comparable dispute with Austin. Because Section 752.051(6) counts an informal, unwritten policy as a policy, the wording of a department memo is not what settles the question — a reader following this should watch the official sources rather than the headlines.

A separate county deadline that this does not touch. Chapter 753 of the Government Code, added by Senate Bill 8 of the 89th Legislature, requires the sheriff of each county that operates a jail, or contracts for one, to request and enter an immigration law enforcement agreement with ICE under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and sets December 1, 2026 as the date by which each sheriff must comply. A city police department’s guidance does not change a sheriff’s obligation under Chapter 753, and a person arrested and booked into a county jail is in the sheriff’s custody, not the city department’s. This site covered Chapter 753 and the December 1 date in a separate post on September 3, 2026.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page is advice about any particular person’s case, and no one can tell from a news report whether a given status, defense, or filing is available to a given person. These are the kinds of questions a Texas lawyer is in a position to answer from the actual record.

What happened at the stop. An immigration lawyer or a criminal defense lawyer can ask for the dispatch log, the body-camera recording, the citation or booking paperwork, and any warrant that was run, and can review which agency made the stop and what guidance that agency was operating under on that date. Where a person was questioned, held, or turned over to federal custody, a lawyer can review how and when that happened.

Two cases, not one. A criminal charge and an immigration consequence run on separate tracks, in different courts, on different timetables. Experienced attorneys describe the resolution of a criminal case — including a plea that looks minor — as something that can carry immigration consequences of its own, which is why many people have both reviewed together rather than one at a time.

Victims and witnesses. Where someone reported a crime, or was a victim of or witness to one, and was asked about immigration status, a lawyer can review whether Article 2A.059 of the Code of Criminal Procedure bears on what happened, and what, if anything, can be done about it.

Custody and release. Where a person is being held, a lawyer can review the basis for the hold, whether a bond request is available, and what filings the record supports. The answers turn on the individual’s own history and paperwork.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The rules on the date of the stop are the ones that governed it. Houston’s guidance changed on November 6, 2026, and it had changed earlier in 2026 as well. A stop that happened before a change was handled under the instructions then in force. Fixing the date, the agency, and the guidance in effect is ordinary early work in these matters, and it gets harder as time passes.

Records do not last forever. Body-camera recordings, dispatch audio, and jail records are kept under agency retention schedules rather than indefinitely. A lawyer can request them while they still exist.

Immigration matters move on short clocks. People in federal custody can be moved between facilities and between states, and filing windows in immigration proceedings are frequently measured in days. A lawyer who is already looking at the file is in a better position when something has to be filed.

A statutory date is on the calendar. Chapter 753 sets December 1, 2026 as the date by which the sheriff of each county that runs a jail must have requested and entered a 287(g) agreement. That is a county obligation rather than a city one, and it is unaffected by the Houston order.

If any of this touches your family, it is best to talk to a lawyer about your own facts rather than work from a policy summary. Options may exist that are not obvious from inside the process.

Sources

1. Mayor John Whitmire issues executive order directing HPD to alter guidance on contact with ICE, City of Houston Mayor’s Office news release, November 6, 2026 — the signing of the executive order, the scope described by the mayor and by Police Chief Noe Diaz, and the department-wide memo (primary document). Listed on the Mayor’s Office of Communications newsroom.
2. Texas Government Code, Chapter 752, Subchapter C — added by Senate Bill 4, 85th Legislature, Regular Session, effective September 1, 2017: the definitions in Section 752.051, the prohibitions in Section 752.053, the victim and witness provision in Section 752.057, the complaint and equitable relief procedure in Section 752.055, the civil penalties in Section 752.056, and the forfeiture of office provision in Section 752.0565 (primary document).
3. Texas Government Code, Chapter 753 — added by Senate Bill 8, 89th Legislature: the requirement that the sheriff of each county operating or contracting for a jail request and enter an ICE 287(g) agreement, and the December 1, 2026 compliance date (primary document).
4. Houston mayor limits police cooperation with ICE, The Texas Tribune, November 6, 2026, updated November 7, 2026 — independent reporting on the order, the nature of administrative ICE warrants, the number added to the national database, the April 2026 ordinance and its revision, the reported contact figures for 2024 and 2025, and the state funding figure.
5. APD changing ICE policies after Hinojosa’s election win, KUT News, November 6, 2026 — independent reporting that the Austin mayor asked the police chief to update general orders, the January 2027 target, the existing “operationally feasible” guidance, and the Austin state-grant figure.
6. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones looks to roll back SAPD cooperation with ICE, San Antonio Current, November 6, 2026 — independent reporting that the San Antonio mayor said she will ask the city manager to explore options, and that no policy change had been adopted.
7. Texas Sheriffs Must Sign ICE 287(g) Agreements by December 1, 2026, this site, September 3, 2026 — earlier coverage of Chapter 753, the three 287(g) models, and the December 1 date.