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Texas Gov. Abbott threatened to strip $200 million from Houston, Dallas, and Austin over ICE-cooperation policies

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office threatened on April 13 and April 16, 2026, to withdraw roughly $200 million in state public-safety grants from Houston, Dallas, and Austin unless the cities repealed police policies limiting how far officers go in cooperating with ICE detention requests. Attorney General Ken Paxton separately sued Houston the same week over the same policy, while city officials and the ACLU of Texas said the policies complied with state law and the Fourth Amendment.

Jurisdiction
Texas
Location
Austin, Texas

Abuses documented

Actors

On April 13, 2026, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's office told Houston it would lose about $110 million in state public-safety grants unless the city repealed a police policy directing officers not to prolong detentions solely to check immigration status. On April 16, Abbott's office sent similar letters to Austin, warning that roughly $2.5 million in grants was at risk, and to Dallas, which stood to lose more than $32 million in grants plus over $55 million in World Cup public-safety funding. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton separately sued Houston the same week, arguing the city's policy violated Senate Bill 4, a state law barring local governments from "materially limiting" immigration enforcement. Houston, Austin, and Dallas officials, along with the ACLU of Texas, said the targeted policies complied with SB4 and the Fourth Amendment; Austin Mayor Kirk Watson publicly pushed back on the funding threat.

Houston's and Dallas/Austin's subsequent rollback of their ICE-cooperation policies under this threat are recorded as separate entries, with each city government as the acting party.

Why we recorded this

Discretionary state grants are supposed to be administered on neutral criteria, not used as leverage over a policy dispute the state has not won in court. Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office threatened to strip roughly $200 million in public-safety grants from Houston, Dallas, and Austin unless they reversed police policies limiting cooperation with ICE detention requests, even as the state's own attorney general pursued a separate lawsuit over the same policy. Conditioning routine public-safety funding on cities abandoning a contested legal position, rather than on a court finding of noncompliance, uses the power of the purse to bypass the legal process the state itself initiated. This archive records when officials use funding threats as a substitute for, rather than a consequence of, a legal determination.

Sources

  1. Greg Abbott threatens Texas cities over ICE policies — The Texas Tribune primary accessed July 18, 2026

See also