HOUSTON – Houston City Council Member Letitia Plummer is pushing to revise Houston Police Department policy on when officers contact federal immigration authorities, a proposal she says would give officers more discretion without violating state law. But the Houston Police Union argues the change can’t happen and isn’t needed, saying ICE has picked up only eight people this year after HPD contacted the agency about open warrants.
Under HPD’s current general order, officers “shall contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if a background check through NCIC/TCIC (National Crime Information Center and Texas Crime Information Center) returns a possible hit from ICE regarding a wanted or detained.”
This means that when officers run a person’s name and a warrant appears, administrative or criminal, they are required to contact the agency that issued it, including immigration authorities.
Plummer wants that requirement softened.
Her proposal would change the wording from “shall contact ICE” to “may contact ICE,” allowing individual officers to determine whether the warrant requires ICE involvement.
“The officer would have the discretion to say, we don’t need to report this to ICE because it’s a low violation,” Plummer said. “Very simple wording, but it changes it tremendously in terms of what their level of discretion is.”
Plummer began reviewing the department’s policies after a June domestic violence case where the victim herself had an ICE warrant.
Critics have questioned whether giving officers discretion would conflict with Texas Senate Bill 4, the new state law allowing law enforcement to arrest people suspected of crossing the border illegally.
Plummer says the revision is fully compliant.
“The revision complies with Texas State Bill 4 by not prohibiting or materially limiting cooperation with ICE, only prohibiting unconstitutional detention,” she said. “We were very careful about protecting not only our HPD officers but protecting our immigrant community.”
She stresses the goal is not to restrict police.
“We’re not preventing HPD to do their job. I mean, clearly, we want to keep Houston safe on every way possible,” Plummer said.
The Houston Police Officers’ Union strongly opposes the change.
Union President Doug Griffith argues officers cannot legally ignore warrants issued by any agency, local or federal.
“What she’s asking us to do is basically illegal,” Griffith said. “If you have an open warrant, you have to contact the agency…no matter if it’s Harris County, Fort Bend County, Austin County or ICE.”
Griffith says officers already follow a consistent and lawful process: they notify the issuing agency, wait for direction, and document the encounter if that agency declines to take custody.
“If they want them, we’ll hold them… If not, we document it and let them go,” he said. “That’s exactly what we do with ICE.”
He also argues changing HPD’s policy could risk federal and state funding.
Griffith says Plummer’s proposal is unnecessary because the number of people actually detained due to ICE warrants is extremely small.
“To the best of my knowledge, we haven’t had but eight individuals that were stopped and ICE wanted them,” Griffith said. “Everybody else has been document and release. That’s what we’ve done.”
He says the low number shows HPD is not engaged in mass detentions tied to immigration status.
Plummer needs one more council member’s signature to advance the proposal for formal discussion.
Even then, she does not expect the idea to go to a vote immediately.
“I don’t expect this document to get voted on,” she said. “I expect this to now be a formal conversation to where we refer it to committee.”
There is no clear timeline yet for when, or if, the proposal will be taken up by the full city council.