Dallas and Austin police rolled back ICE-detention limits under Gov. Abbott's funding threat

On April 23, 2026, the Dallas Police Department revised its general orders on interactions with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, removing language that had barred officers from prolonging a person's detention -- during a traffic stop or similar encounter -- to investigate their immigration status or hold them for ICE. Police Chief Daniel Comeaux said the update affirmed that Dallas officers would "cooperate with federal authorities when required"; the revised policy newly permits officers to ask the immigration status of people already lawfully detained and to share that information with federal authorities, though it still bars officers from stopping or contacting people solely to determine immigration status. Austin's police department followed a day later, on April 24, updating its general orders to direct officers who encounter an administrative ICE warrant to contact ICE "when operationally feasible" and determine how urgent the request is, with a higher-ranking officer deciding what counts as a "reasonable" wait for federal agents; Austin's revision kept its existing bar on detaining someone based solely on an administrative warrant. Both changes came after Gov. Greg Abbott's office threatened Dallas with the loss of more than $32 million in grants plus over $55 million in World Cup public-safety funding, and Austin with the loss of about $2.5 million in grants, unless the cities reversed policies limiting how far officers cooperate with ICE detention requests -- part of the same roughly $200 million funding-threat campaign Abbott's office also directed at Houston.