SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Three San Antonio City Council members have asked for a special session to tighten when city police may contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, coming just after statewide voters removed the sitting governor and lieutenant governor from office.
District 2 Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, District 5 Councilwoman Teri Castillo and District 6 Councilman Ric Galvan signed the memo on Friday, Nov. 6, and asked that the session be held by 2 p.m. on Nov. 17. They want colleagues to vote on an ordinance that would rewrite San Antonio Police Department rules for working with ICE.
Under their plan, officers would reach ICE about someone only if that person is already being booked on fresh charges or outstanding warrants and a National Crime Information Center search turns up an administrative warrant issued by ICE. Suspicion that someone might face immigration enforcement would not, by itself, be a reason to call ICE, extend a stop or place the person in custody.
The memo says state directives, including those from Gov. Greg Abbott, have pressed Texas cities and their police departments to work with ICE and have warned that money could be withheld. In April, he warned Houston, Dallas and Austin that he might pull roughly $200 million in state public-safety grants if those cities did not alter policies he viewed as limiting help to federal immigration authorities.
Those administrative papers can follow a judge’s final removal order or alleged immigration violations, including a missed court date. They come from a federal agency, not from a criminal-court judge signing an arrest warrant.
The department’s policy on racial and bias profiling and immigration does not spell out when an officer should call ICE, and it notes that nothing in that protocol bars officers from sharing information with ICE, including Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire on Friday directed Houston police to contact ICE only when someone is being arrested for a jailable offense and also has an ICE administrative warrant, an order that took effect immediately. San Antonio’s version would need a council vote. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson also said Friday that he wants his city’s ICE rules revised and asked Austin’s top officer to revise standing general orders before governor-elect Gina Hinojosa takes office in January.
If the ordinance passes, the memo calls on City Manager Erik Walsh, along with Police Chief Jesse Salame, to carry out the new limits. A 2017 state law, Senate Bill 4, still obliges municipal police chiefs and county sheriffs to assist federal immigration officials when asked, including holding people past their release time so ICE can take custody.
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