Gov. Greg Abbott's office is claiming that the Dallas Police Department could be in violation of grant agreements for not cooperating with ICE.
That could mean the city would owe more than $32 million in grant repayment and risk losing $55 million in FIFA public safety money.
A letter from Abbott's office was sent to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson on Thursday.
It says that City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert certified last year that the city and the Dallas Police Department would fully participate in all aspects of programs by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The certification was made with the knowledge that failure to comply would result in loss of state Public Safety grants, according to the letter.
The city has until April 23 to respond and confirm whether it will fully comply with Tolbert's certification.
This comes months after Dallas Police Chief Daniel Comeaux told the Community Police Oversight Board that he turned down $25 million to join the ICE 287(g) program, uses local and state police officers for immigration enforcement.
Under 287(g), a trained officer would conduct their day-to-day department tasks. If they saw probable cause that someone was undocumented, such as during a traffic stop, they could conduct immigration enforcement.
Comeaux previously told council members that detaining, transporting, and booking a suspected undocumented person could take DPD officers off the street and impact its already high response times.
Both Johnson and the City Council backed Comeaux's decision because of concerns over resources, county jail capacity, and maintaining community trust.
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