Thread: Houston Police Chief Refuses Fed Training

Houston Police Chief Defends NOT Enforcing Immigration Laws

The Chief among others do not want to defend United States Citizens by enforcing Immigration Laws and refuses training from the Feds for his police.

Oklahoma and Arizona have both implemented bills that enforce immigration laws resulting in ILLEGALS leaving their states and returning to their home country or moving to another state in the United States to drain their resources. The Chamber of Commerce and our elitist politicians always claim to follow Immigration Laws but continuously become confused about the interpretation of the law.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5504455.html

Even after one of his officers was killed by illegal deported before -what a fool

This police chief should be fired. If he won't inforce the our laws then we need someone that will.

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Jan. 31, 2008, 11:37PM
Police chief defends his immigration law stance
Hurtt says HPD won't train to help ICE enforce federal policy


By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

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While a growing number of police agencies across the country have received federal training to enforce immigration laws, Houston's police chief maintained a strong stance Thursday against joining this trend.

At least 28 state, county and local law enforcement departments have taken training to make immigration arrests and process illegal immigrants for deportation. More than 70 others are on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement waiting list for training.

But Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt made it clear Thursday that his department won't be taking on ICE duties any time soon. Hurtt said enforcing immigration law in Houston would tie up officers and add long delays to police response times.

"Local police don't want to be immigration officers, they want to be able to enforce (local) laws," Hurtt told a state legislative committee.

Hurtt was the lead-off witness in a Thursday morning hearing by the Texas Border Security Task Force that focused on terrorism, illegal immigration and port and border security.

The chief told the task force, chaired by Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega, that Houston is not a sanctuary city, and he cited cooperative agreements the department has with ICE and the Justice Department. ICE agents are allowed into county and city jail facilities to question non-citizens who are arrested.

As he left the hearing, Hurtt said police don't know the actual number of illegal immigrants in Houston or the Harris County area but said estimates range from 250,000 to 500,000.

"That's a major city in itself," Hurtt said. "If we had to enforce immigration laws the response time to emergency calls — which now we have around five-minute response time — could possibly go, with our present resources, go to 30 or 45 minutes. And I don't think that's acceptable to citizens of Houston." He added that the longer response time would put people at risk.


No time for training
The ICE training program is known as 287 (g) for the section of a 1996 immigration law that created it. The program has trained state police in Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, and sheriff's departments in California's Los Angeles and Orange counties and in Maricopa County, Ariz., which is similar in size to Harris County.

The number of law enforcement departments receiving the ICE training in 2007 was a fivefold increase over the previous year. Hurtt, however, said Houston can't spare the time for officers to receive the five-week training.

"If you're going to train all your officers that means they're going to be off the streets for a certain period of time for training," he said after the hearing. "Again, that's an additional burden on the city, as well as the citizens. We just think it's a federal responsibility, and we're asking them to step up to the plate."

Louise Whiteford, president of the Houston-based Texans for Immigration Reform, said Hurtt is following "the same old party line."

"It's political, it would take a stand on immigration and they would rather not address that," she said. "There would be repercussions from people about enforcing immigration law."

Whiteford said trained immigration officers could take criminal immigrants off Houston's streets, which could relieve HPD's workload.

"Some of the police have told me they'd like to have the training, and they'd be willing to pay to go get it," she said.

Houston's position is in sharp contrast to a number of cities and states that have passed laws contending with illegal immigration. In 2007, legislatures across the country introduced 1,500 immigration-related bills, and 244 became law in 46 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures' Web site.

Hurtt said police departments have few resources to spare for immigration enforcement. He said a Clinton administration program that helped fund placing 80,000 to 100,000 officers on America's streets "is all but dried up."


Sheriff's office agrees
Meanwhile, a top Harris County law official expressed a similar view of the pitfalls of immigration enforcement.

Major Juan Jorge of the Harris County Sheriff's Office, who spoke before the task force Thursday, said afterward that local immigration enforcement could "darn near cripple" his department.

"It probably could lessen your response time by 10, 15, or 20 percent," Jorge said.

He questioned how deputies could enforce immigration without racial profiling.

"I don't think we have the time to do that. Any arrest is very time-consuming, especially when we have a limited amount of people on patrol," he said. "Anytime you do something like that, it takes people off the street and that keeps you from answering calls."

Jorge asked how officers would determine who to question about their citizenship.

"Again, how do you know they are or not?" he said. "Are you going to ask everyone who looks Hispanic? Am I going to get asked everytime someone sees me on the street, 'Are you legal?' "

james.pinkerton@chron.com


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5504455.html

Originally Posted by DHolmes7

Even after one of his officers was killed by illegal deported before -what a fool

Thats two police officers killed by IAs

These guys are not even enforcing existing laws against driving without insurance or license.

I have a copy of a police report of an accident where a truck driver lost his load on a major freeway. NO LICENSE,NO INSURANCE.
truck driver did not even get a TICKET.

By the way. Many auto insurance companies will sell policies to people without a license. So the argument that you must have a license to get auto insurance is another lie.

he is obstructing justice and does this mean he would no arrrest for any federal law violation?

If I don't do what I get paid to do on my job, I'd be fired. Why is this man still holding his job?

Let's call on Houston and all of Texas to fire this traitor!

Let's call on Houston and all of Texas to fire this traitor!

The only problem with this is the illegals outnumber citizens in Houston. I live here so I know.

Glad to hear Houston is not a sanctuary city.....now why are there 250,000 to 500,000 illegal aliens there?