The Houston Police Department issued a directive Thursday enabling officers to "wait a reasonable amount of time" for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to "obtain custody" of people with civil immigration warrants.
The policy came one day after the city council revised an ordinance that initially prohibited officers from detaining people or prolonging traffic stops due to civil immigration warrants.
Passed two weeks earlier in a 12-5 vote, the original measure intended to curtail coordination between Houston police and ICE, which has ramped up deportations in Texas and across the country under President Donald Trump. But it drew the ire of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who threatened to revoke more than $110 million in public safety grants unless the city reversed the policy.
The city council's revision on Wednesday and HPD's directive on Thursday fulfilled Abbott's demand, according to Mayor John Whitmire.
"The amended ordinance reaffirms the Fourth Amendment and allows us to recover $114 million in state public safety funding," Whitmire said in a statement.
The updated directive appeared to conflict with City Attorney Arturo Michel's comments to the city council on Wednesday, when he said officers would still be unable to detain people solely due to civil immigration warrants.
Such a detention by local law enforcement officers — over a civil immigration warrant issued by a federal agency without the signature of a judge — would violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures, Michel said.
RELATED: What does Whitmire's HPD-ICE policy revision actually mean?
Council member Alejandra Salinas spearheaded the original measure.
"City council was assured by the City Attorney that the Governor's amendment would not detain individuals based solely on a civil administrative warrant. The updated directive makes clear that was false," Salinas said in a statement. "HPD must now ‘wait' for ICE to ‘obtain custody of the individual.' The public deserves a clear and transparent explanation."
Michel and a spokesperson for Whitmire did not immediately respond to a question about the apparent tension between the city attorney's comments and HPD's directive.
Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, said in a statement that Texas cities “must fully comply with state law and cooperate with federal immigration authorities to keep dangerous criminals off our streets.”
“The Houston City Council has repealed its radical ordinance which prevented such cooperation, and the Houston Police Department updated its policies, clarifying that law enforcement will notify DHS and help it obtain custody of individuals subject to removal proceedings,” Mahaleris added.
Last year, HPD turned over about 85 people to ICE, according to police chief Noe Diaz.
In March, Diaz directed officers to wait no longer than 30 minutes for federal agents to arrive. The new directive sets no specific time limit, potentially allowing officers to wait even longer.
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