Three major Texas cities have revised policies on how local police cooperate with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents after Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to withdraw state funding.
Austin announced Friday that its police department is updating its general orders to clarify how officers should handle administrative warrants from ICE. The move came over a week after the governor’s office warned that around $2.5 million in grants — which the city said are used for sexual assault evidence testing, victims assistance programming and other public safety initiatives — were under threat if Austin didn’t change its policy.
The change followed similar policy updates from Houston and Dallas, which stood to lose over $110 million and more than $32 million in public safety grants respectively. More than $55 million in World Cup public safety funding could also be at risk for Dallas, the governor’s office said.
