Greg Abbott threatens to terminate Houston grants over ICE rule

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is threatening to pull more than $100 million in public safety grants for Houston unless the city repeals an ordinance that established guidelines for local police to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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The Republican’s threat is potentially catastrophic for Houston — and more than a little hypocritical in light of his previous rebukes of civil rights activists who have called to “defund the police,” a phrase meant to promote reallocating portions of policing budgets to social programs.

On Monday, the governor sent a letter to Houston’s conservative-leaning Democratic mayor, John Whitmire, declaring that his office would require repayment of $110 million in state grants unless city officials vowed not to enforce — and agreed to overturn — a new ordinance mandating that police officers cannot prolong field encounters, such as traffic stops, longer than necessary when someone has an administrative warrant issued by ICE.

One might say it seems like a reasonable requirement, considering ICE’s central role in Trump’s racist anti-immigrant crackdown, which a federal judge — a Ronald Reagan appointee, at that — has compared to the Ku Klux Klan’s roving patrols.