San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks during an event. Credit: Public Domain / U.S. Air Force

San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones on Friday said she will ask City Manager Erik Walsh to explore options for ending the police department’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Her comments to the Current came hours after Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order calling on that city’s police department to contact ICE only if a person is arrested for a jailable offense and also has an administrative immigration warrant. The move came after Gov. Greg Abbott’s defeat in Tuesday’s election.

“It’s important that we are making sure our police officers are focused on what their mission is, which is keeping us safe and not taking on other responsibilities that they’re not trained for and that actually make the community less safe when people are afraid to call the police,” Jones said.

Through an array of executive actions, Abbott required local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and notify ICE whenever officers encountered undocumented immigrants.

On Thursday, staff for Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa told the Current they didn’t yet have a policy or statement on how she plans to address Abbott’s executive orders on ICE cooperation and his Operation Lone Star border crackdown. However, it’s clear Whitmire and Jones aren’t waiting.

It’s not just cooperation with ICE that’s been on Jones’ mind in the days since Texas flipped blue in Tuesday’s bloodbath for Republicans.

On Thursday, she also sent her City Council colleagues a memo requesting ideas on how to amend the city’s lobbying priorities ahead of the Texas Legislature’s next session, which begins in January.

On Oct. 30, City Council approved a list of priorities that city staff would lobby for in Austin. Those included preventing the breakup of CPS Energy along with funding for Project Marvel, flood protection projects and the South Texas Parkway transportation initiative.

With Abbott leaving office, lobbying to protect CPS Energy may no longer be necessary. The governor said he wanted to break up the utility because of its status as a city-owned monopoly.

While Jones isn’t opposed to keeping the other legislative agenda items approved by council, she wants the city to do more now that Democrats control the Texas House and every major statewide executive office.

Her top priority is expanding Medicaid access for San Antonio residents.

“[Texas] has got the most uninsured folks in the country,” Jones told the Current. “Expanding that helps about a million folks get healthcare overnight.”

Texas has long held the title as the nation’s most uninsured state. What’s more, Texas also had a backlog of 238,000 Medicaid applications as of September — a significant jump from the 1,600-case backlog at the start of this year.

Jones’ other priorities include repealing Abbott’s so-called “Death Star” law, which hinders Texas cities’ ability to self-govern, and removing barriers to reproductive health care and voting rights.

“I think we’ve got a real opportunity to improve our neighbors’ lives in meaningful ways,” Jones said.

Jones said she hasn’t yet heard back from others on council about what they want to see in revisions to the city’s legislative priorities ahead of the upcoming session. However, she said she wants residents to call their district council offices and share ideas.

Jones hopes the council will take action on the matter at its Dec. 3 A Session, if not sooner.

“Elections matter,” Jones said. “We have heard you, and we’re trying to meet this moment the best we can.”

Texas politics is a mess. We make it a readable mess.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...