When the Houston City Council voted 13-4 on April 23 to amend its ordinance governing Houston Police Department interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, it ended a political standoff between the city and the state government.
For Black Houstonians, leaders say, the trade-off is now under scrutiny.
The new amendment, negotiated under duress between Mayor John Whitmire’s administration and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, has secured $114 million in funding for public safety.
The amended ordinance removes a phrase from the original text. Where the original said HPD officers could detain someone “only as long as reasonably necessary” to complete the purpose of a stop, the new version drops the word “only” and adds that officers may hold someone for “other legitimate purposes discovered during the detention.”
How will the amended ordinance impact Houston’s Black residents?
Credit: Edward Pollard
For Council Member Edward Pollard, who co-authored the original ordinance alongside Council Members Alejandra Salinas and Abbie Kamin, that language is vague.
“The issue that has arisen based on this new language for the Black community in Houston is whenever you have any language that speaks to how HPD must conduct itself that is vague or ambiguous, then it can be used as a tool to confuse officers, as well as not set real expectations for citizens,” Pollard told the Defender. “Whether you’re black or any other community, that can pose a problem. For the Black community that has a history of some mistrust…now we can’t really rely on our own language for protections, but now we will have to rely on the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution.”
Pollard added that Houston’s Black community carries a documented history of fraught encounters with law enforcement, which makes clarity in policing policy a necessity, and when that clarity is replaced by discretion, the consequences fall disproportionately on those who have the least institutional power to push back.
Pollard argued that the original ordinance was designed precisely to remove the discretion. He added that it was vetted by the city’s legal department, affirmed by the city attorney as compliant with state law and not in conflict with Senate Bill 4, and passed by a 12-5 council vote just two weeks before it was amended.
“The issue that we’re having is since the governor’s language was more vague and ambiguous, it can allow for HPD to not have clear direction on how long someone needs to be detained,” he said. “Our [Black] community is going to have to rely heavily on the US Constitution. If anyone feels as if their rights were violated by being detained for too long, their only recourse at this moment is going to be the Fourth Amendment because the new language is so vague that it doesn’t give clear direction.”
Black residents make up roughly 22-23% of Houston’s population, yet account for 36% of all traffic stops. HPD’s racial profiling data shows that in 2025, Black residents accounted for more than 109,858 of the roughly 305,435 total traffic stops in the City of Houston.
Credit: Getty Images
Gov. Greg Abbott asserted that the new ordinance complies with the Fourth Amendment.
“Any argument that the newly revised Houston Police Dept. policy may violate the 4th Amendment is flat out wrong,” he wrote on X in response to reports that the amendment causes concerns for legal experts. “It is in full compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court. Arguments to the contrary are just pandering to far-left socialists–like the Houston judges who let murderers out of jail with easy bail only to murder again. Just stop the insanity.”
Conflict in interpretation
The ordinance does not define the legitimate purposes.
However, City Attorney Arturo Michel said HPD officers’ actions “should be more or less the same.” He added that the amendment would still mean police cannot hold people with a civil immigration warrant until ICE arrives. This led council members like Mario Castillo and Tarsha Jackson to cite Michel’s assurance as a reason to vote in favor of it.
The HPD issued a new directive to comply with the amended ordinance. According to Whitmire’s office, both the City of Houston and the Governor’s Office have reviewed the directive and confirm it complies with the amended ordinance and the State of Texas’ grant requirements.
“The amended ordinance reaffirms the Fourth Amendment and allows us to recover $114 million in state public safety funding,” said Whitmire. “I thank the 12 council members who supported this change and understood the consequences. These funds are critical in continuing to make public safety our highest priority, including preparation for the FIFA World Cup.”
Concerns about amendment language
Bishop James Dixon, president of the Houston NAACP, shares those concerns. He frames the issue in the language of lived experience.
“The language in the amendment does not destroy the original, but it does diminish it because the language is more vague,” he said to the Defender. “It’s in that area of vagueness that the risk comes. It leaves a lot to discretion. And because discretion is discretion, it can be dangerous. That’s our concern.”
The NAACP supported the original ordinance because it was explicit. Now, Dixon says the organization’s focus has shifted.
“Our biggest concern is going to be how the policy gets implemented at the street level and monitoring it closely, of course city council talked about that, is what’s very important, and how the community responds if and when we begin to see that the rights of individuals are being violated and people’s humanity is not being respected,” he added.