HOUSTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a news release, saying he’s filed a lawsuit against the City of Houston, targeting Mayor John Whitmire, city councilmembers and the city’s police chief over what he calls an unlawful immigration ordinance the city passed last week.
The ordinance, which passed with a 12-5 vote, ended a Houston police policy that told officers to wait at least 30 minutes for ICE to pick someone up if they had an immigration warrant. The ordnance was instituted April 8, 2026.
According to a news release sent out Thursday afternoon, Paxton argues the ordinance violates Senate Bill 4, a law passed to prohibit “sanctuary cities” during the 2017 legislative session. Under SB 4, local entities like Houston are prohibited from adopting, enforcing or endorsing policies that limit the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The attorney general’s office claims Houston’s recently passed ordinance “blatantly violates” that law. Specifically, the measure prevents Houston police officers from stopping, arresting or continuing to detain someone based solely on an ICE administrative warrant while working in the field. Paxton contends that restriction would materially limit the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
The lawsuit seeks to permanently repeal the ordinance and provide legal protection for law enforcement officers who cooperate with federal officials on immigration enforcement.
“I will not allow any local official to push sanctuary policies that make our communities less safe,” Paxton said in a statement.
Whitmire responded to Paxton’s lawsuit by issuing a statement that reads, “”I think it’s unfortunate that so much time and resources are being spent on an issue that should not be partisan. It interferes with our responsibility to keep Houston safe and protect all residents.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to freeze public safety funding to Houston if it moved forward with the ordinance. Houston Mayor John Whitmire, who voted for the new ordinance, reversed course after the state threatened to freeze funding and is now in support of a repeal.
Earlier on Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott told KHOU 11’s Orko Manna that the city’s immigration ordinance violated an agreement the city made to work with federal immigration authorities.
A special Houston City Council meeting that was scheduled for Friday has been pushed back to Wednesday after the governor pushed the deadline to respond to the funding freeze to the same day.
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