ICE is recruiting Houston police officers as shortage persists
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Houston police observe a protest against immigration raids in February. Photo: Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is headhunting in Houston as the city tries to fill hundreds of vacant police officer positions.
Why it matters: The city of Houston is working toward closing the police staffing gap, but the introduction of federal recruitment could make the job all the more difficult.
Catch up quick: The Houston Police Department has roughly 5,200 police officers and officials say hundreds more are needed to keep up with the city's growing population. There are more than 1,200 police officer openings as of April.
- In May, Mayor John Whitmire helped secure a new contract with the Houston Police Officers Union (HPOU) that included salary increases and other benefits aimed at making HPD more attractive to recruits.
Driving the news: The Department of Homeland Security tells Axios it has been running TV ads nationwide recruiting local law enforcement for ICE since July.
- The ads run in rotation in "key target cities," DHS said.
- ICE received 150,000 applications and tendered more than 18,000 job offers since the ad campaign started, per DHS.
Zoom in: The ad starts with a voiceover addressing "Houston law enforcement."
- The voiceover calls Houston a "sanctuary city" while footage of the downtown skyline and immigration raids flashes across the screen.
- "You're ordered to stand down" while dangerous undocumented immigrants "walk free," the voiceover says. "Help us catch the worst of the worst drug traffickers, gang members, predators … and fulfill your mission."
What they're saying: HPOU president Doug Griffith says interagency recruitment is expected but that cities like Houston don't have the budget for ad campaigns and instead have to do more "groundwork."
- He believes Houston offers better options for law enforcement hopefuls.
- "We are stationed here in our hometown," Griffith tells Axios. "Our ability to move around is so much better than anybody going to work for ICE."
- "Most real police officers want to go chase bad guys. They don't care about immigration status."
The other side: ICE is offering a $50,000 sign-on bonus to new recruits and says it will continue to do so.
- "Nothing — not even the Democrats' Government Shutdown — will slow us down in removing the worst of the worst including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists from our country," DHS said in a statement to Axios.
The intrigue: The advertisement describes Houston as a "sanctuary city," but HPD has been increasingly working with ICE since Trump took office.
- HPD policy, which hasn't changed since 2020, dictates officers can only contact ICE if they encounter someone with an immigration warrant.
- But records show calls to ICE jumped 1,000% since Trump took office in January, per the Houston Chronicle.
Between the lines: Whitmire is remaining silent on the ads. The mayor's office did not respond to requests for an Axios interview.
- Whitmire recently told the New York Times, "I don't respond to Trump" — and that he prefers to avoid confrontation when it comes to local issues.
Zoom out: Other Democratic city leaders have bucked up against Trump and ICE, including Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas.
- "I think that that's a terrible job for terrible pay," Thomas told Axios Denver last month.