It’s not just Houston that’s in the hot seat over restricting law enforcement from working with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The mayors of Austin and Dallas were also notified that their governments are in breach of an agreement with the state enabling them to receive grant money.

Conversations are underway between Gov. Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor John Whitmire after the Houston City Council voted to restrict the Houston Police Department from cooperating with ICE, causing the city to lose $110 million in grants, The Center Square reported.

The governor’s Public Safety Office director Andrew Friedrichs sent letters to the mayors of Austin and Dallas on Thursday stating they would also lose funding unless they reversed course. Their city managers signed similar grant certifications with the governor’s PSO stating their cities and police departments would fully participate in programs and procedures implemented by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including complying with ICE detainer requests. They also acknowledged that failure to comply with the certification requirements would result in terminating grants and they’d have to return all grant money they received.

After they signed the grant certifications, the Austin and Dallas police departments revised their General Orders directing officers that they had the ability to refuse to cooperate with ICE and were “not authorized to detain illegal aliens pursuant to an ICE administrative warrant and may even choose not to notify ICE at all about a match with such a warrant.”

The policies violate their cities’ agreement with the governor’s office and the terms of the grant certification, Friedrichs says.

If the cities don’t reverse course, Austin will be required to return $2.5 million, and Dallas, $32.1 million, in PSO grant money to the state. If the DPD continues to implement its order, it “may imperil the city’s ability to receive any of the $55.1 million in FIFA World Cup public safety funding separately allocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Friedrichs said.

Both cities were given a deadline of April 23 to confirm that they will repeal the order and not enforce it. If they don’t, they will be required to repay the PSO on or before the 30th day after the PSO agreement terminates, according to the letter.

The Office of the Attorney General also opened investigations into the cities’ policies, similar to the investigation it opened into Houston’s.

Earlier this year, a lawsuit was filed against Dallas officials for not fully funding the DPD, The Center Square reported. This week, the OAG sued Houston officials arguing its policy violated state law, SB 4, and is unconstitutional.

Houston City Council members argue the policy is constitutional and blame Abbott for making the city less safe. Austin Mayor Kirk Watson similarly criticized Abbott.

“Providing public safety is a primary function of our City government,” Watson said. APD’s General Orders were revised “to assure our officers can best meet local public safety needs, maximize the use of our limited police resources, and provide much needed clarity to officers when encountering ICE administrative warrants,” he said, which are “consistent with state requirements, including SB4.”

He also said the city has “made great progress on public safety – but our APD officers do not have the capacity ≠ and should not be asked – to do the jobs of other entities.” This is after the Austin City Council voted to defund the APD six years ago. Abbott and the legislature immediately responded and enacted laws requiring cities that defund their police to lose state funding.

A 2021 voter-led initiative to fully fund the APD failed after outside money poured into Austin to defeat it. Since then, the city has been grappling with fentanyl and other drug overdoses and a machete crime problem, The Center Square reported.

Abbott has also directed multiple state-led initiatives to improve public safety in Austin as the APD continues to suffer staffing shortages. One was launching a street takeover task force led by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Another was having DPS augment APD efforts by providing additional resources to target violent crime, including a rising murder rate, The Center Square reported.

Watson said it was ironic that the state “would try to punish the city for providing services that keep Austinites safe by threatening grants that keep Austin safe.” Some of the grant money provides services to officers experiencing trauma and helping sexual assault survivors, he said. He also said Friedrich’s letter “isn’t about keeping Texans safe,” the city will not comply with his demand and doesn’t “have the time and will not play into this political theater.”

Failure to comply with their contract agreements makes Texas cities and residents less safe, the governor’s office argues.