NWV News - Obama's ICE Chief Opposes Immigration Enforcement

OBAMA'S I.C.E. CHIEF OPPOSES IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT

By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
July 5, 2010
© 2010 NewsWithViews.com

While scolding the people of state of Arizona for their new immigration enforcement law, President Barack Obama and his minions repeatedly demonstrate their lack of enthusiasm for protecting the U.S. borders and cracking down on illegal (criminal) immigrants, say border security advocates.

The Obama Administration recently appointed a police chief -- who believes in illegal alien sanctuary city policies -- to command an immigration enforcement program that entails federal agents working with local police departments on cases involving illegal aliens.

As part of the Homeland Security Department's anti-terrorism mission, the new director for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of State and Local Coordination is now Harold Hurtt, an outspoken critic of immigration enforcement on the local level such as Arizona's new immigration enforcement law.

"As police chief in two different cities with huge illegal alien populations—Phoenix and Houston—Hurtt enforced don’t-ask-don’t-tell immigration measures that prevented officers from inquiring about a suspects’ legal status in the U.S.," according to officials at Judicial Watch, a non-partisan, public-interest group that investigates public corruption.

In his new post, Hurtt will receive a salary $180,000 a year plus benefits to oversee outreach and communication between federal immigration staff and local law enforcement agencies. He is charged with strengthening the collaboration between local police and federal immigration officials in an effort to combat a crisis that has rocked practically every major U.S. city and many small municipalities, according to Judicial Watch officials.

Homeland Security officials are promoting Hurtt as “a respected member of the law enforcement community” who will be an “invaluable asset to ICE’s outreach and coordination efforts.”

However, the reality is quite different, say proponents of tough immigration enforcement. Chief Hurtt is on record opposing immigration enforcement and as police chief protected the most violent of criminals. Hurtt has even testified before Congress that local police should not assist with immigration enforcement, say officials at Judicial Watch.

President Barack Obama has ordered the Justice Department to fight the Arizona law, which he claims is racist and unconstitutional. Officials in sanctuary cities couldn’t agree more and they want illegal aliens in their beloved city to feel safe.

"We can expect Chief Hurtt to continue to 'protect' criminal aliens as part of the Obama Administration's 'national security team" that includes other leftists who side with criminal aliens such as Attorney General Eric Holder, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other Obama appointees," said former military intelligence officer and NYPD police detective Mike Snopes.

His pro-immigration policies enabled illegal immigrants with extensive criminal histories to murder two police officers and seriously injure another while he was chief in Phoenix and later in Houston. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against Hurtt on behalf of the deceased Houston officer’s wife for implementing the sanctuary policies that led to her husband’s murder at the hands of an illegal alien fugitive.

In the 2007 incident, Officer Rodney Johnson was brutally shot by a previously deported illegal immigrant during a traffic stop. The illegal alien, Juan Quintero, had an extensive criminal record and had been deported three years earlier for molesting a child.

The Mexican national had also been in trouble for driving while intoxicated, driving with a suspended license and for failing to stop and provide information after an automobile accident. When Johnson arrested him, Quintero shot him four times in the back of the head with a 9 millimeter handgun concealed in the waistband of his pants.

Some illegal aliens in the United States have been arrested and incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails, adding to already overcrowded prisons and jails. On April 7, 2007, the US Justice Department issued a report on criminal aliens that were incarcerated in federal and state prisons and local jails.

In the population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, researchers found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests. Most of the arrests occurred after 1990.

They were arrested for a total of about 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging about 13 offenses per illegal alien. One arrest incident may include multiple offenses, a fact that explains why there are nearly one and half times more offenses than arrests. Almost all of these illegal aliens were arrested for more than 1 offense. Slightly more than half of the 55,322 illegal aliens had between 2 and 10 offenses.

"[Hurtt's] appointment is simply one more nail in the coffin of America's soverignty," Det. Snopes said.

Adding to the White House's unwillingness to stop what's being characterized as an invasion from Mexico is the fact that instead of walls or chain link fencing, the U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Department created the concept of virtual fence. The security proposal includes surveillance cameras, motion or heat sensing detectors, radar, and supposed state-of-the-art control towers designed to detect and prevent illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the United States.

According to a report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police, the security contractor -- Boeing Co. -- is installing the hi-tech physical security system. The original plan called for a completion date by December 2009 at a cost of $1.1 billion for a virtual fence. According to the report obtained by NACOP, Boeing requested that completion date to be amended by seven years.

Physical security experts told this writer it should surprise no one that a relatively simple project would become complicated and unmanageable given that fact that most of the decision-makers probably have no law enforcement, security or engineering background.

Besides the problems government officials face with the project's completion, testimony during the House Homeland Security Committee reveals that parts of the system that have been installed and placed into service frequently break down. In fact, the government report revealed that the hi-tech system rarely helps Border Patrol agents capture illegal aliens.

However, some officials still believe the concept and the program of "virtual fencing" will eventually prove successful in providing Border Patrol agents valuable assistance.

"We want to make sure we do this right," said Mark Borkowski, director of Customs and Border Protection's Secure Border Initiative or SBInet. "Yes, the [system] works," Borkowski stated emphatically.

So far, Boeing engineers have finished installation on the 23-mile "Tucson-1" phase of the project and they are now building "Ajo-1." Tucson-1 and Ajo-1 are locations in the Arizona where SBInet is being installed. The Boeing fence project is but one part of a $4 billion program to secure the U.S.'s 2,000-plus mile border with Mexico.

However, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last Tuesday stated that about $50 million originally earmarked for SBInet will be spent on what she termed "proven technologies," rather than the high-tech Boeing designed and installed equipment.

Secretary Napolitano claims her decision is based on an internal security investigation and vulnerability assessment in which investigators discovered more than 1,200 defects in SBInet systems within a 16-month period -- March 2008 thru July 2009.

President Barack Obama has called for budget cuts in the SBInet funding by almost $300 million.

But Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said during the House hearing that a "dire situation" that exists on the U.S.-Mexico -- with drug gang murders in Mexico and illegal immigration -- leaves no time for delays on SBInet.

"There is a war going on," McCaul said, referring to roughly 6,000 murders in Mexico last year, most of which are suspected of being drug-related. "We cannot afford any more timeouts."

The porous border between the United States and Mexico made it nearly certain the drug violence would spill over into the United States, he said.

Congress decided to investigate problems with the virtual fence after the Government Accountability Office pointed out cost overruns and delays in a report on SBInet.

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Roger Krone, Boeing's president of network and space systems, said SBInet would get better as the glitches are worked out of the first parts of the system, according to the GAO report.

"It is giving border patrol a significant tactical advantage, especially in nighttime operations," Krone said during his testimony before the Congressional committee.