HOUSTON -- State Sen. John Whitmire returned to Houston Tuesday night.

Whitmire said he is not afraid of getting arrested and that he did not abandon the Texas 11, who are still in New Mexico.

The senator was met at Hobby Airport by Rep. Jean Green and a swarm of media.

Whitmire's decision to return home potentially ends a standoff between Democrats and Republicans over congressional redistricting, and gives Republicans the quorum needed to consider the plan if a special session were called.

Whitmire said it was time to come home to Houston. The 15th Senatorial District representative, comprised of north Houston and north Harris County, spent the Labor Day weekend with his family. He returned to New Mexico Tuesday to let his Democratic colleagues know about his plans.

"I am proud to be a part of the Texas 11. I am very opposed to redistricting, but at some point in time we have to realize that we cannot remain in New Mexico indefinitely," Whitmire said. "(Gov.) Rick Perry is committed to calling special, after special, after special (session). At some point in time, remaining in New Mexico is counterproductive. Redistricting is very important but there are also many other important issues such as criminal justice, school finance and property tax reform," he said in Houston."

The senator said the constituents he met with last week thought that redistricting should not happen, but if someone was going to propose it, then the Democrats needed to take the fight to Senate floor.

Whitmire's return to Texas came as a surprise to his colleagues.

"Whitmire's behavior is his own. I don't understand why he left the Democratic caucus at this point. We are going to continue our efforts to educate the state and the nation," a Texas 11 member said.

Another member said, "It is very easy to pass legislation that protects the rich and powerful, but so is a fight to protect democracy and the principles that we believe in."

The 10 Democratic senators left in Albuquerque are evaluating their options, but said they want to continue the battle over what they are calling "unfair" redistricting.

Whitmire said he plans on meeting with Republican leaders and Democratic colleagues to try and repair the division between the two parties and hopes to find some common ground. However, the senator said the issue of redistricting would be battled in court.

The 11 boycotting senators stymied redistricting during the most recent special session by staying in New Mexico and preventing a quorum on the Senate floor until the end of the 30-day session.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, of Laredo, said Democrats in Albuquerque believed Whitmire spent the weekend in Louisiana and learned of his return to Houston through media reports.

"We are going to stay," Zaffirini said. "We will consider all of our options. We haven't made any decisions."

Whitmire said last week he was getting increasingly anxious and wanted an end strategy.

The mood at the Albuquerque hotel where the Democrats were staying was somber as they each expressed deep disappointment at Whitmire's departure.

"While I understand Senator Whitmire's frustration and anger, I am disappointed to see him surrendering so easily," said Sen. Rodney Ellis, of Houston. "All eleven of us have made true sacrifices to be here in Albuquerque. I have a newborn baby at home that doesn't even know what I look like. ... I hope that Senator Whitmire feels as we all do, that no personal sacrifice is so great as to outweigh the constitutional issues at stake."

Leaders of the Democratic pack who left Austin to block congressional redistricting insisted last week that the whole group was committed to staying another month, until Republicans meet their demands or until the threat of arrest is gone.

The second special session ended Aug. 26 but the senators stayed in Albuquerque, N.M., because they feared Perry would immediately call another session once they arrived back in Texas.

Perry would not say Tuesday when he might call a third special session.

"I will allow you all in the media and the public to know at the appropriate time when I decide, if I decide, to call another special session," Perry said. "If the senators come back and do their job, I can promise you I'm going to do mine."

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said he hoped Whitmire's statements signaled an end to the standoff.

"I have said from the beginning of the redistricting debate that the business of the Texas Senate should be done on the Senate floor, not in the courts and not in New Mexico," Dewhurst said.

Messages left at Perry's and Dewhurst's offices about Whitmire's decision to return to Texas were not immediately returned Tuesday night.

Whitmire said Republicans will stop at nothing to push through a map of political districts ordained by top GOP officials and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land to give Republicans more seats in the state's congressional delegation.

A court hearing in Laredo gave the Democrats some hope, but didn't produce an immediate avenue for their return.

Federal Judge George Kazen said last week that he doesn't think Republican efforts to draw new congressional districts in Texas violate Democrats' rights, as the Democrats argued in a lawsuit. But he also thinks a lawsuit filed by the quorum-busting senators raises enough questions to ask the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to appoint two other judges to join him in a panel that could issue a ruling within a few weeks.