Patterico's Pontifications

6/25/2010

White House Picks Immigration Enforcement Critic for ICE Liaison

Filed under: Immigration,Obama — DRJ @ 2:18 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

The White House has picked former Phoenix and Houston police chief Harold Hurtt, reportedly a supporter of sanctuary cities, to serve as liaison between ICE and local law enforcement:

“Harold Hurtt, a former police chief in Houston and Phoenix, has been hired as the director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of State and Local Coordination. Starting July 6, Hurtt will supervise outreach and communication between ICE, local law enforcement agencies, tribal leaders and representatives from non-governmental organizations.

“Chief Hurtt is a respected member of the law enforcement community and understands the concerns of local law enforcement leaders,” said John Morton, the Homeland Security assistant secretary for ICE. “His experience and skills will be an invaluable asset to the ICEs outreach and coordination efforts.”

But as a police chief, Hurtt was a supporter of “sanctuary city” policies, by which illegal immigrants who don’t commit crimes can live without fear of exposure or detainment because police don’t check for immigration papers.

He also, during his tenure as Houston police chief, criticized ICE’s key program that draws on local law enforcement’s support.

“There’s no way you can head up an office if you don’t believe in what the office is supposed to do,” Curtis Collier of U.S. Border Watch, told the Houston Chronicle. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s primary mission is to protect the American people. If this guy believes any of these programs should not be enforced, he’s certainly going to be a very weak advocate for them.”

I agree with Collier but I bet Hurtt will get along fine with leaders of the 2005 Congressional Research Service sanctuary cities (footnote p. 30), assuming they are still on the list, as well as any new sanctuary cities:

Anchorage, AK, Fairbanks, AK, Chandler, AZ, Fresno, CA, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Sonoma County, CA, Evanston, IL, Cicero, IL, Cambridge, MA, Orleans, MA, Portland, ME, Baltimore, MD, Takoma Park, MD, Ann Arbor, MI, Detroit, MI, Minneapolis, MN, Durham, NC, Albuquerque, NM, Aztec, NM, Rio Arriba, County, NM, Sante Fe, NM, New York, NY, Ashland, OR, Gaston, OR, Marion County, OR, Austin, TX, Houston, TX, Katy, TX, Seattle, WA, and Madison, WI.

I’m especially curious about Arizona. Will Hurtt use his position and contacts to seek out whistleblowers useful to the Obama Administration’s proposed lawsuit against Arizona?

H/T Dana.

— DRJ

20 Responses to “White House Picks Immigration Enforcement Critic for ICE Liaison”

  1. I would say this is worse than putting tax evader Turbo Tax Timmy Geithner in charge of the IRS.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  2. Figures.

    In the list of sanctuary cities, I italicized ones I knew to have a significant college population. I assume there are more, any one care to further the list? Goes to show there are some things so foolish you have to go to college to believe.
    Anchorage, AK, Fairbanks, AK, Chandler, AZ, Fresno, CA, Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA, Sonoma County, CA, Evanston, IL, Cicero, IL, Cambridge, MA, Orleans, MA, Portland, ME, Baltimore, MD, Takoma Park, MD, Ann Arbor, MI, Detroit, MI, Minneapolis, MN, Durham, NC, Albuquerque, NM, Aztec, NM, Rio Arriba, County, NM, Sante Fe, NM, New York, NY, Ashland, OR, Gaston, OR, Marion County, OR, Austin, TX, Houston, TX, Katy, TX, Seattle, WA, and Madison, WI

    MD in Philly (5a98ff)

  3. six hundred million
    for border but nine hundred
    million for hamas?

    ColonelHaiku (181d1a)

  4. throw them all out now
    let the leftists cry at night
    then cut their own lawn

    Specialist Haiku (fb8750)

  5. What’s the term for the reverse of a sanctuary city?
    Here’s one in Nebraska
    http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news205.htm

    BTW, in case anyone is wondering–Aztec is the county seat of San Juan County, whose eastern neighbor is Rio Arriba County. Both are border counties, if by border you mean the state border with Colorado.

    And Taos is the county to the east of Rio Arriba.
    On the map, at least the southwestern part of Rio Arriba looks to be in commuting distance of Los Alamos and Santa Fe. Which may account for the leftist influence there.

    kishnevi (827a72)

  6. southwestern part of Rio Arriba

    should have been “southeastern part of Rio Arriba”

    kishnevi (827a72)

  7. Another thought about this situation: If Wiegel was outed by someone, couldnt’ that same someone have screen shots of other JournoLister’s emails and be on the verge of outing them as well??? Maybe someone who secretly loathes these ranting lefties, someone who is bitter and wants payback…

    OH NO! Say it ain’t so!

    Laura Bush: “We have the huge-screen TV. That was one of the first things we bought and put upstairs in George’s man cave, that we call it, the one big room that’s upstairs, and where his desk is and his computer.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  8. What’s the term for the reverse of a sanctuary city?
    Comment by kishnevi — 6/25/2010 @ 5:31 pm

    Law-abiding.

    Stashiu3 (44da70)

  9. Stashiu3 – High Five!

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  10. Feh. Wrong thread.

    Dana (1e5ad4)

  11. give sanctuary
    til cows come home but have Left
    pay bill own pocket

    ColonelHaiku (181d1a)

  12. My man-cave is coming in another month. Me and Winston will be like pigs in Democrat policies.

    What college is in Chandler AZ ? Tucson is wher U of A is and I don’t think, even with their left wing city council, they would go for this.

    Mike K (82f374)

  13. and there’s this, courtesy of the UFW
    http://www.takeourjobs.org/

    Stashiu–you can be law abiding and yet not take extra stringencies upon yourself, which is what Fremont is doing (and in doing so, making any renter get approval from the Police Department. What’s the quote about people who give up some liberty to obtain security?)

    kishnevi (827a72)

  14. kishnevi – What part of what Fremont is doing do you object to? If landlords do not want to be on the hook for renting to people in the country illegally, how do they avoid that?

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  15. kishnevi,

    I just answered your question my friend. You toss a hanging curve into my wheelhouse and sometimes the temptation to swing at it becomes overwhelming. 😉

    I didn’t say that what Fremont was doing should be lawful though. I disagree with the requirement to get an “occupancy license” as being too intrusive for the government. It’s their town however and doing something is better than nothing.

    Stashiu3 (44da70)

  16. OH NOES!!!! Jobs Americans won’t do.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)

  17. daleyrocks,

    Outline what proof of legal residency is acceptable, make the landlord responsible for collecting a copy prior to the lease signing, and ensure that violators are penalized (landlords = fine then jail for subsequent offenses, illegal aliens = deported).

    Stashiu3 (44da70)

  18. I bet all those new border guards are going to get tired arms waving all those people into the country.

    Will Obamacare pay for their rotator cuff surgeries?

    MU789 (959170)

  19. I take issue with how the article describes what a sanctuary city is.
    Common sense police work would exclude arresting witnesses of violent crimes for being here illegally.
    Common sense says should protect everyone equally first. No one should be afraid to report a crime.

    The police should be neutral until you are suspected of committing a crime… then it would seem to be their job to find out everything legal and illegal.
    Sanctuary cities purposefully ignore illegal status regardless of other criminal activities.
    They wouldn’t want to stigmatize a rapist by identifying him (or her these days) as an illegal alien rapist.

    The media can always find some elected idiot who will blurt out that any Mexican looking person around a taco truck at 6:30AM in Santa Ana, buying a burrito for their lunch, should be fair game for police action as a suspected illegal alien.
    But what to do with the elected official that is overheard saying that you could ask 200 people at random around Mac Arthur Park to give you their ID… and you’d be counting ID’s for the rest of the day?
    Blunt truths have to be spoken anonymously now.

    SteveG (9fb25f)

  20. “Outline what proof of legal residency is acceptable, make the landlord responsible for collecting a copy prior”

    Stashiu3 – I’m fine with stiff like that. Make it like an employer required verification, but do landlords have access to the same tools? The town chose to do it differently to achieve a similar objective. They probably had their reasons for doing it that way. kishnevi’s link does not explain.

    daleyrocks (1d0d98)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0863 secs.