By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – Houston city officials amended on Wednesday an ordinance that halted cooperation with federal immigration authorities after the Texas governor threatened to withhold $114 million in public safety funds ahead of this summer’s soccer World Cup matches.
The ordinance passed this month had restricted police in the largest city in Texas and the fourth most populous in the United States, from detaining those subject to deportation warrants.
The Houston city council voted 13-4 to pass the amendment, said the office of Democratic Mayor John Whitmire, adding that it would protect $114 million in state funding and reinforce people’s rights against unreasonable detention.
The 2026 soccer World Cup is set to begin on June 11 across the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Wednesday’s change dropped an explicit bar on the practice of giving federal agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency 30 minutes to pick up people named in the warrants.
The amendment approval was “a step in the right direction,” a spokesperson for Republican Governor Greg Abbott told the Texas Tribune newspaper.
The amendment also strikes out a description of ICE’s administrative warrants as being “not reviewed by a neutral magistrate or judge and are not probable cause for a criminal arrest,” the paper added.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had filed a lawsuit against the Democratic mayor and city council members over the ordinance.
Civil rights groups condemned the amendment.
“Houston city council caved to the governor’s threats and intimidation,” said Caro Rivera Nelson, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas.
“The effective repeal of Proposition A is a stain on our state,” she added, referring to the ordinance.
ICE has been the face of a hardline immigration crackdown and deportation drive pursued by the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.
Rights groups have condemned the crackdown, saying it has led to violations of free speech and due process rights and created an unsafe environment, particularly for minorities.
Trump casts his actions as necessary to improve domestic security and curb illegal immigration.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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