The midterm ballots weren't even certified yet when Houston Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order directing the Houston Police Department to stop contacting ICE for nonviolent offenses.

He signed it on November 6 — Election Day — and framed it as medicine.

"I do this to begin a healing process," Whitmire said. Healing. As though immigration enforcement in America's fourth-largest city were a wound that needed treatment.

The order is straightforward: HPD will no longer notify ICE when officers encounter illegal immigrants during nonviolent contacts. "If they're charged with a new crime, we'll let ICE know as we get them to the jailhouse," Whitmire told reporters. "We just are not going to deal with the nonviolent contacts."

The word "new" is doing heavy lifting in that sentence. A new crime. Meaning the person ICE wants to locate has already committed the crime of being in the country illegally — but that one doesn't count. Houston PD will only pick up the phone if the person adds to their resume.

Whitmire pointed to the election results as his justification. Democrats swept Texas statewide offices this cycle, including Gina Hinojosa defeating former Governor Greg Abbott — the first Democratic gubernatorial win in Texas in a generation. The party also captured a Texas Senate seat for the first time in more than 30 years.

"The governor was requiring us to contact ICE. It created a lot of anxiety," Whitmire said. He called the new policy "certainly consistent with the new leadership in Austin."

Consistent with the new leadership. The new leadership doesn't take office until January. Whitmire acknowledged as much: "We won't have new leadership until January. But I'm willing to make a responsible decision that in the next two months we're going to go to a more effective policy."

So the outgoing policy — the one that existed under Greg Abbott, the one that required cooperation with federal immigration authorities — is being scrapped two months early. Not because a court ordered it. Not because the law changed. Because an election happened and Whitmire decided the voters gave him permission to stop cooperating with ICE before the people they elected even take office.

The executive order directs Chief Diaz and HPD to implement the change immediately. American Wire News reported the announcement came the same day as the midterm elections.

"Helping reduce fear in our communities," is how Whitmire described the purpose. The communities with fear, in this framing, are the ones containing people ICE is looking for. The communities dealing with the consequences of illegal immigration — those don't appear in the executive order.

Two months before the new governor is sworn in. The old governor's policy dismantled overnight. And the man who did it called it healing.

Houston has 2.3 million residents. Their mayor just told federal law enforcement to stop calling.