Mayor’s Request for ICE Collaboration Met With ‘Hell No’ From Some Council Members

Six members of the Dallas City Council issued statements over the weekend condemning Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s calls for a potential partnership between the Dallas Police Department and federal immigration officials, stating that such a collaboration would erode the public’s trust in its local police force. 

For months, community members have asked for more clarity as to the Dallas Police Department’s level of involvement with local Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. During a Community Police Oversight Board meeting on Tuesday, Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux assured the board that DPD has not entered into a partnership with ICE, going as far as to say the department turned down a $25 million offer to enter into a 287(g) program contract. The program grants immigration enforcement jurisdiction to local law officers, and a new state law will require county sheriff’s offices to adopt the policy next year. 

Friday afternoon, Johnson sent a letter to several council members criticizing Comeaux’s decision. The memorandum, issued to council members Cara Mendelsohn and Maxie Johnson, chair of the public safety and government efficiency committees, respectively, instructs the two committees to hold a joint meeting with ICE officials and Comeaux to explore whether the  287(g) program could be a lucrative opportunity for the City of Dallas.

“Clearly, participation in ICE’s Task Force Model could provide significant financial benefits to the city. The Dallas Police Department could use these funds to, for example, hire additional officers with no impact on the city’s budget,” Johnson wrote. “Dallas might be forfeiting significant direct financial benefits by declining ICE’s offer. Therefore, I am now asking your committees to explore the potential benefits of participating in the 287(g) program.”

The memo also implies that Johnson does not feel the decision to opt out of the program was one Comeaux should have been able to make unilaterally, and that DPD’s participation in 287(g) could help keep “violent criminals off our streets.” 

By Saturday, several council members had made it clear that if Johnson hopes to overturn Comeaux’s decision using the horseshoe’s governing power, he faces an uphill battle to do so. 

Council members Chad West, Paula Blackmon, Adam Bazaldua and Jaime Resendez issued a joint statement expressing concern with Johnson’s “Friday afternoon missive” and support for Dallas’ immigrant community. The council members wrote that entering into a federal contract with immigration officials would have “implications long past the current administration.” 

“Safer communities are built through trust and connection. DPD participating in this program would certainly undermine progress made,” the statement reads.  

On his own social media, Resendez went a step further. Two-thirds of the residents in Resendez’s district are Hispanic or Latino, city data shows, and the council member said he could “never be at peace” while feeling like his constituents could be targeted by the mayor’s “playing games with people’s lives.”

“The mayor often likes to bring up his kids and their safety to humanize himself, but he’s willing to throw Latino kids and their families under the bus by inviting the kind of aggressive, unconstitutional violence we’ve seen from ICE in other cities,” he wrote. “The silence from those who know better and stay quiet because it’s safer politically is how injustice survives.” 

On Sunday evening, council members Jesse Moreno and Laura Cadena issued their own statement that calls for immigration enforcement to remain a responsibility of the federal government. Like their colleagues, Cadena and Moreno expressed concerns that entering into a 287(g) program contract could harm trust between Dallas residents and local law enforcement. 

“We encourage residents to reach out to your elected officials and share your concerns, experiences and perspectives to ensure that community input remains at the center of decisions that affect our city,” the statement said. 

Moreno and Cadena’s statement leaves eight council members yet to weigh in on the 287(g) program. It is not clear when a discussion on the matter will be scheduled for Johnson’s requested joint committee meeting. 

Although Johnson made waves in 2023 by switching to the Republican Party just months after being re-elected as a Democrat, he has been slow to divulge the full breadth of his political opinions. Friday’s memo is one of only a few times the mayor has weighed in on immigration, for instance. And although the memo frames the interest in the 287(g) program as a primarily financial one, DPD’s partnership with ICE agents is something that Johnson has expressed support for in part. 

“Of course, we’d support [deportations]. Of course, we’d stand by President Donald Trump in an effort to get rid of people in our country illegally who have violent criminal records,” Johnson said during a Fox News segment last November. 

The mayor declined to clarify those comments when asked by the Observer.