Texas Cities Rush to Proclaim Pro-Migrant Election Mandate

The dust hasn’t even settled on the midterm elections yet, and already big-city mayors in Texas are sounding like the leaders of Los Angeles or Fairfax, Virginia, on illegal immigration. The blue wave that swept Democrats into the governorship, lieutenant governorship, state attorney general post, and a US Senate seat has emboldened urban officials to move swiftly to thwart attempts by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to identify and remove illegals from their domains.

“I do this to begin a healing process — reduce fear and anxiety across our community,” Houston Democrat Mayor John Whitmire said at a news conference on Nov. 6 as he announced he is directing city police officers to limit their cooperation with ICE. “I also do this knowing that elections matter.”

Big Blue Border State

Despite President Donald Trump being swept back into the White House just two years earlier with a mandate from the American people to conduct mass deportations, Democrats in Texas appear to be claiming the midterm results definitively represent a clamoring for aiding and abetting illegal immigration in the Lone Star State. That this is happening in the second-largest US state by population, which just happens to border Mexico on a vast scale, makes the threat to American citizens throughout the nation all the more palpable.

Free with the Daily Briefing

85Essays

Unravel the Constitution

Hamilton, Madison & Jay’s complete case for America, free and searchable in the Publius Reader.

Join Free & Read

Free with the Daily Briefing. Unsubscribe anytime.

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones lost no time in riding Whitmire’s vapor trail. “It’s important that we are making sure our police officers are focused on what their mission is, which is keeping us safe and not taking on other responsibilities that they’re not trained for and that actually make the community less safe when people are afraid to call the police,” Jones told San Antonio Current just hours after Whitmire’s pronouncement.

Jones also plans to ask “City Manager Erik Walsh to explore options for ending the police department’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” the paper noted.

Houston PD already seems to be softening its approach to the illegal immigrants it encounters. “If our police officers pull someone over for a minor traffic infraction and they write a citation, that person receives the citation and goes about their day,” Police Chief J. Noe Diaz said at a news conference. “HPD will no longer contact ICE if they have an administrative warrant and they are not arrested.”

Houston has been engaged in a running battle over immigration enforcement cooperation with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. “In April, Houston City Council adopted an ordinance eliminating a policy requiring officers to wait 30 minutes for ICE agents to arrive at traffic stops initiated by Houston police,” The Texas Tribune details, adding:

“In response, Abbott threatened to withdraw roughly $110 million in state public safety grants, arguing the ordinance violated the state’s 2017 Senate Bill 4, which makes it illegal for a police department to limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. As a state lawmaker, Whitmire voted against SB 4.

“City Council subsequently revised the ordinance, and Houston police issued new instructions requiring officers to contact ICE when they encountered someone with an administrative immigration warrant.”

But Abbott was trounced by progressive challenger Gina Hinojosa on Nov. 3. Blue cities are feeling their freedom when it comes to illegal immigration. And some of Texas’ new political leaders seem to be encouraging them every step of the way.

‘We Just Want to Treat People Humanely’

“I think people are tired of our neighbors being treated this way,” Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin told NewsNation in the aftermath of the elections. “They [local police] aren’t protecting their communities the way that they need to. I think that we need to undo those 287(g) agreements and let local law enforcement take care of their communities. And ICE will carry out its duties, but we need to make sure law enforcement is not aiding and abetting ICE here in Texas. We just want to treat people humanely.”

From Liberty Nation News, Trivia, Facts, Check Us Out Stay informed. Today’s news, the Constitution and American history, written for young readers. Visit GenerationLiberty.com

What does “humanely” mean in a Democrat-controlled Texas? For illegal aliens, they might be able to flout the nation’s immigration laws without any pesky everyday worries slowing them down.

“We need people to come here and fill these jobs that we have, whether it is in agriculture, hospitality, healthcare,” Goodwin said. “We need people to fill jobs that are open right now. And so I think that they add to our economy.”

She even made the argument that illegal immigrants are needed to reduce housing costs. “We have a housing affordability crisis,” Goodwin said. “If we are deporting our workforce, that certainly does not help.” She is championing cheap-labor construction workers here, yet forgetting that illegal aliens residing in huge numbers in Texas could drive housing costs up by reducing supply and increasing demand.

Compassion?

ICE has not been quiet, informing Texans of the type of hardened criminals less likely to be taken off the streets under the new pro-illegal alien policing policies.

On Nov. 12, the Department of Homeland Security issued a news release “highlighting the worst illegal aliens arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the city of Houston, Texas, including those convicted for crimes such as willful killing of a police officer, indecency with a child by sexual contact, and driving while intoxicated.”

Among those listed:

· “Apolinar Santibanez Avellanea, an illegal alien from Mexico, arrested by ICE on October 16. His criminal history includes convictions for murder and driving while intoxicated. He had been deported twice before, in 2008 and 2025, before illegally re-entering the country at an unknown date and location. ICE deported him on October 27, 2026.”

· “Victor Andres Ayala Rosales, an illegal alien from El Salvador, arrested by ICE on October 12. His criminal history includes a conviction for indecency with a child by sexual contact. He illegally entered the United States at an unknown date and location.”

If illegal aliens with similar backgrounds are stopped for driving through a red light in the Houston or San Antonio city limits, police officers there might intentionally remain oblivious to their immigration status and allow them to continue on their way after possible ticketing. And American citizens could be put in a heightened state of lethal danger. The leaders who are about to assume power in Texas call this “compassion.”