A Crack In The ICE
In a classic case of the inmates running the asylum, an outspoken critic of enforcement of illegal immigration laws by local authorities has been picked by the Obama Administration to coordinate partnerships between federal and local officials dealing with the issue of illegal immigration.
Harold Hurtt begins his new job next month as the director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of State and Local Coordination. The job title might sound familiar to folks in Charlotte-Mecklenburg; it was the gig previously held by former Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph, a Republican currently running for an at-large seat on the board of commissioners.
And while Pendergraph remains a strong advocate of the 287(g) program, which draws on local law enforcement agency’s support in enforcing immigration laws, questions linger about whether the same can be said of Hurtt.
As police chief of Houston and Phoenix, Hurtt strongly supported “sanctuary city” policies that encourage police to not check suspected illegal immigrants for documentation papers, unless they have committed a crime.
During his tenure as Houston police chief, Hurtt criticized ICE’s 287(g) program that draws on local law enforcement agency’s support in enforcing immigration laws, according to FoxNews:
“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.”
Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for ICE, told FoxNews.com that Hurtt has always been a proponent of the jail model of the 287(g) program, which gives local police authority to initiate deportation proceedings against illegal immigrants linked to serious crimes — but as a police chief, he didn’t favor more proactive local enforcement because he didn’t believe it was the best utilization of his resources.
Hurtt’s support or lack thereof for the 287(g) program, however, might ultimately have limited relevance in his new position with ICE. The agency has stripped the program from under the state and local coordination office, Pendergraph said, and shuffled it into a larger bureaucracy. The change, he said, was deliberate in its intent.
“It’s obvious what the Obama Administration is trying to do,” Pendergraph said. “Take the focus off immigration enforcement and dismantle [the 287(g) program].”
Hurtt’s role will likely be more of a figurehead, Pendergraph said, publicly pushing a soft stand on illegal immigration law enforcement as a part of an overarching platform of so-called comprehensive reform.
“It’s typical of the direction they’re heading and on track with what they’re trying to do,” he said. “It needs to be stopped.”
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