By Stephen Clark
FoxNews.Com
June 25, 2010
The Obama administration has tapped an outspoken critic of immigration enforcement on the local level to oversee and promote partnerships between federal and local officials on the issue.
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."
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.
"I think the critics are only talking about half of what he said," she said. "He's always been a strong proponent of every law enforcement agency making those decision on their own."
Critics say his pro-immigration policies enabled illegal immigrants to kill two police officers and seriously injure another in Phoenix before he left in 2005 and to kill an officer in Houston before he retired in 2009.
The widow of one of the officers, Rodney Johnson, who was fatally shot by an illegal immigrant with a long criminal record, is suing Hurtt for enacting policies that she says led to his death.
But Nantel dismissed such allegations.
"The responsibility of those homicides lies on the shoulder of the individuals who committed the crimes," Nantel said.
Hurtt's position at ICE reportedly pays $180,000 a year.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/24/obama-administration-picks-critic-immigration-enforcement-key-role-ice/
Showing posts with label ICE Chief Ousted. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ICE Chief Ousted. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Controversial ICE chief Julie Myers to leave Nov. 15
Controversial ICE chief Julie Myers to leave Nov. 15
November 5th, 2008
Name: Stephen Losey
The Federal Times
The trickle of Bush administration officials headed for the door is likely to become a flood now that the election’s over. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers today became the first major appointee to resign after Barack Obama’s victory. Her last day will be Nov. 15.
Myers’ nearly three-year tenure at ICE has been dogged by controversy, though she eventually won over some skeptics.
After Myers was originally nominated to run ICE in June 2005, senators from both parties doubted she had enough experience to run the 17,000-employee agency.
Myers had the bad luck to have her confirmation hearing scheduled for September 2005, days after Michael Brown resigned as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown’s disappointing performance during and after Hurricane Katrina left lawmakers hungry to root out other unqualified Bush administration appointees, and senators such as George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., originally doubted that Myers had enough immigration experience.
Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed Myers in a recess appointment in January 2006. Myers returned to the Senate Oversight and Government Reform Committee in September 2007, by then having proven herself to many. Voinovich, Akaka and Lieberman turned around and supported Myers, citing the agency’s improved performance on financial oversight and increased arrests of illegal immigrants, and Myers appeared to be on track for an easy confirmation.
But that Halloween, Myers was one of three judges who dubbed an ICE employee’s racially insensitive costume “most original” at an official ICE costume party. The employee wore a black-and-white striped prison jumpsuit and a dreadlocked wig and had darkened his skin to look black. Myers also was photographed with the employee.
Myers later ordered the photographs to be deleted, though the original files on the camera survived. ICE said she ordered the deletion because she realized too late the costume was offensive and wanted to keep it from accidentally being printed in official publications, and not as part of a coverup because she feared the photographs could derail her Senate confirmation.
They nearly did. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., placed a hold on Myers’ confirmation in November 2007 after word leaked out about the costume. But the Senate approved Myers on a voice vote in December 2007.
Myers was also one of four government leaders – along with Brown, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — who had officers from the overstretched Federal Protective Service run a security assessment on their homes between 2002 and 2006. Lawmakers and union officials in June criticized the assessments as inappropriate, and singled out Myers for criticism because she oversees FPS.
http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2008/11/05/controversial-ice-chief-julie-myers-to-leave-nov-15/
November 5th, 2008
Name: Stephen Losey
The Federal Times
The trickle of Bush administration officials headed for the door is likely to become a flood now that the election’s over. Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Julie Myers today became the first major appointee to resign after Barack Obama’s victory. Her last day will be Nov. 15.
Myers’ nearly three-year tenure at ICE has been dogged by controversy, though she eventually won over some skeptics.
After Myers was originally nominated to run ICE in June 2005, senators from both parties doubted she had enough experience to run the 17,000-employee agency.
Myers had the bad luck to have her confirmation hearing scheduled for September 2005, days after Michael Brown resigned as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown’s disappointing performance during and after Hurricane Katrina left lawmakers hungry to root out other unqualified Bush administration appointees, and senators such as George Voinovich, R-Ohio, Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., originally doubted that Myers had enough immigration experience.
Bush sidestepped the Senate and installed Myers in a recess appointment in January 2006. Myers returned to the Senate Oversight and Government Reform Committee in September 2007, by then having proven herself to many. Voinovich, Akaka and Lieberman turned around and supported Myers, citing the agency’s improved performance on financial oversight and increased arrests of illegal immigrants, and Myers appeared to be on track for an easy confirmation.
But that Halloween, Myers was one of three judges who dubbed an ICE employee’s racially insensitive costume “most original” at an official ICE costume party. The employee wore a black-and-white striped prison jumpsuit and a dreadlocked wig and had darkened his skin to look black. Myers also was photographed with the employee.
Myers later ordered the photographs to be deleted, though the original files on the camera survived. ICE said she ordered the deletion because she realized too late the costume was offensive and wanted to keep it from accidentally being printed in official publications, and not as part of a coverup because she feared the photographs could derail her Senate confirmation.
They nearly did. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., placed a hold on Myers’ confirmation in November 2007 after word leaked out about the costume. But the Senate approved Myers on a voice vote in December 2007.
Myers was also one of four government leaders – along with Brown, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — who had officers from the overstretched Federal Protective Service run a security assessment on their homes between 2002 and 2006. Lawmakers and union officials in June criticized the assessments as inappropriate, and singled out Myers for criticism because she oversees FPS.
http://www.federaltimes.com/federal-times-blog/2008/11/05/controversial-ice-chief-julie-myers-to-leave-nov-15/
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