Gov. Greg Abbott's office is investigating Texas cities that limit law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials after the Republican governor threatened to pull $110 million in public safety grants from Houston this week.
A spokesman for Abbott did not specify which cities were under investigation, but told Hearst Newspapers the governor's public safety office is "looking into allegations that other cities may be in violation of their contract with the state."
"Every city in Texas that enters into an agreement with the Governor‘s Public Safety Office must follow the same standards applied to the City of Houston," Andrew Mahaleris said.
READ MORE: Mayor Whitmire reverses course on Houston ICE policy after Greg Abbott threatens city funding
A state law passed in 2017 bans so-called "sanctuary" policies and requires local police to cooperate with federal immigration officials. Still, some cities across the state have sought to manage how much local police interact with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to President Donald Trump's mass deportation drive.
The Houston City Council last week voted to scrap a policy that requires officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE officers to pick up someone with a civil immigration warrant. The city's new policy also requires the department to make reports to the council about its cooperation with ICE.
The governor's office said that policy flouted an agreement to work with federal immigration authorities that the city signed to receive the public safety grants his office oversees. Abbott distributes $580 million in state and federal grants to local law enforcement agencies each year, one of the biggest pots of police grant funding in the state.
In March, Austin moved to bar local police from arresting or detaining someone just because ICE has issued a noncriminal warrant for their arrest. That policy also requires officers to get supervisor approval before waiting for ICE to arrive and detain an individual.
San Antonio, meanwhile, has started reporting ICE requests for police assistance and related costs, but has not gone so far as to limit cooperation.
Abbott's threat to pull public safety funding from Houston drew attacks from state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat running against the governor as he seeks a record fourth term in office. Hinojosa called it a "shakedown."
"Governor Abbott's threat to decimate Houston's public safety funding is shameful," she said in a statement. "Holding local leaders hostage with the threat of harming their own constituents is not leadership, it's political theater that makes government more broken, and Texans are tired of it."
The attorney general's office, which is led by Republican Ken Paxton, is also investigating the Houston and Austin policies.
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