Houston’s mayor has ordered city police to curb routine cooperation with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reversing a harder line he adopted earlier this year under pressure from state Republicans.

John Whitmire’s executive order says officers should contact ICE only when a person is being arrested for a jailable offence. People stopped for minor traffic violations will no longer be referred simply because an administrative immigration warrant appears in databases.

The move came days after Democrats swept statewide offices in Texas, long treated as Republican territory. Whitmire said he had consulted the newly elected governor, lieutenant governor and comptroller, framing the change as a step toward reducing fear across the city and as a possible model for other Texas municipalities. “Elections matter,” he told reporters, describing a healing process after a bitter campaign season.

Police Chief J Noe Diaz backed the order and said implementation had already begun. The policy shifts away from an April approach Whitmire adopted when then Governor Greg Abbott threatened to pull about one hundred and ten million dollars in state public safety grants. Abbott argued that a city ordinance limiting ICE contact breached a 2017 state law that bars local police from restricting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued the mayor, the city council and the police chief over that earlier ordinance. The new executive order tests how far a large Texas city can go in narrowing immigration referrals after voters handed Democrats a stronger statewide hand.

Houston is the most populous city in Texas, so the practical effect could be large for people who encounter police mainly over traffic stops. Immigrant communities have long said routine referrals turned everyday policing into a pipeline toward detention. Supporters of tighter cooperation argue that local limits complicate federal enforcement.

Whether other Texas cities follow, and whether state officials renew legal or fiscal pressure, will shape how durable Whitmire’s reset proves. For now the mayor is tying the change directly to the midterm verdict and to a bid to lower anxiety in daily encounters with police.