Texas vowed to cooperate with ICE, but its big-city police departments face a difficult choice

SAN ANTONIO — When Immigration and Customs Enforcement came calling on Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux months ago to ask his officers to assist in supporting President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement operations, the chief of police in the third-largest city in this very red state said no. On the other hand, in Texas’ largest city, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, has been under fire from residents and officials since he was quoted in the Houston Chronicle acknowledging some cooperation with ICE.

SAN ANTONIO — When Immigration and Customs Enforcement came calling on Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux months ago to ask his officers to assist in supporting President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration enforcement operations, the chief of police in the third-largest city in this very red state said no.

On the other hand, in Texas’ largest city, Houston Mayor John Whitmire, a Democrat, has been under fire from residents and officials since he was quoted in the Houston Chronicle acknowledging some cooperation with ICE. The police department there has no formal agreement with the agency, but calls from the city’s police force to ICE, mostly as result of traffic stops, have risen 1000% since President Donald Trump was re-elected, the Houston Chronicle reported based on public records.

The approaches in Dallas and Houston show the quandary some police departments face as they weigh their cities’ public safety priorities against the Trump administration’s pressures to multiply its enforcement forces. Texas’ largest cities, where the majority of its Black and Hispanic populations are concentrated, face a tough choice: partner with ICE and risk blowback from their own communities or take a pass and risk seeing the administration send ICE, Border Patrol or National Guard troops to their cities. Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina, chose the latter option, only to see federal immigration enforcement arrive on their streets.

Texas Republican lawmakers and the governor have generally sided with helping the Trump administration by passing laws that require cooperation. Sheriffs’ offices in Texas counties with populations of more than 100,000 are required by law to sign an agreement with ICE by December 2026. Texas’ Department of Public Safety, which includes highway troopers, has also signed an agreement with ICE.

Sheriffs’ offices and other law enforcement departments around the country, including in cities like Las Vegas and Miami, are signing up with unprecedented speed to a decades-old program to partner with ICE, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an immigration think tank that has surveyed departments about the partnerships over the years.