Now that Mayor White wants to become Senator White, the “It’s the feds’ fault!” message he has cultivated for the past few years just won’t fly, so he’s having to add a bit of nuance. You see, it IS still the Feds’ fault, but now he’s going to make it a “cause” (via the Chron’s Susan Carroll and Bradley Olson):
Standing in front of a bank of TV cameras this week, Houston Mayor Bill White took the federal government to task for not deporting an illegal immigrant with a criminal record before he allegedly shot a Houston police officer during a recent drug raid.
“I vowed after talking to the officer’s wife that I was going to make this a cause,” the mayor said Tuesday, “and I wasn’t going to tolerate some of the excuses that we’ve heard about lack of resources.”
That is truly pathetic. As if being mayor of Houston has been an out-of-body experience for him. Who’s been making excuses? Mayor White. Who said HPD resources couldn’t be spent doing the federal government’s job? Mayor White.
But, you see, with a statewide run for office in progress, NOW it’s become a cause. It wasn’t a cause in 2006 when HPD Officer Rodney Johnson was murdered by an illegal alien criminal.
Here’s Mayor White in 2005:
“The protection of our borders is essentially a federal function,” the mayor said. “I am not going to take our police out of the neighborhoods” to start looking for illegal immigrants. “Our police priority is going to be public safety.”
And here:
Mayor White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt have defended the current policy. Immigration is a federal responsibility and local police are busy fighting more serious crimes, said a spokesman for White, Frank Michel.
The city’s police force has shrunk to 4,600 officers from 5,200 since mid-2003. Many officers retired early to avoid having benefits reduced by a plan that the city enacted to shore up its police pension.
And after Officer Johnson’s murder in 2006 (what’s more serious than murder?), MayorWhiteChiefHurtt confirmed their support for the city’s sanctuary policy directive:
The department’s current policy forbids officers from asking about someone’s immigration status, unless they’ve committed at least a Class B misdemeanor. It also prevents officers from inquiring about citizenship if a person has committed no crime.
Both White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt supported that policy. However, White said Wednesday at a City Hall press conference that certain “operational refinements” could still be made. “I think it’s fair game for discussion with a committee,” said White.
Here’s how HPD refined the sanctuary directive:
[…]if an officer should decide to arrest an individual and bring them to the city jail, “We will be checking fingerprints of Class C offenders,” said City Council Public Safety Committee Chairman Adrian Garcia. “If there’s information that comes back in relation to questionable immigration status, we will put a ‘hold’ on you until Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can investigate.”
The Chron’s story notes how the modification panned out:
Recent documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle through a public records request show that very few illegal immigrants are being identified in the city jail. Last year, HPD jailers detained for immigration officials less than 1 percent of the 58,774 suspects booked only into the city’s jails and not transferred to the Harris County Jail. From October 2006 through January, HPD identified and detained 372 suspected illegal immigrants for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The recently obtained documents include a November e-mail from Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt to White that reported “several thousand” illegal immigrants eligible for deportation had passed through the city’s lockups.
But now that Senate-candidate White has a new cause, change is on the horizon:
To plug any potential remaining gaps, White this week said he plans to ask Hurtt to consider participating in the federal government’s controversial 287(g) program, which trains local jailers to assist immigration agents. The move is a departure from the mayor’s past position that local police should have limited involvement in immigration enforcement. The mayor and Hurtt this week also committed to using a Homeland Security database that automatically checks suspects’ immigration history.
Well, maybe change is on the horizon, but since Mayor White’s going to “ask” Chief Hurtt to “consider” participating in the federal program, we shouldn’t hold our breath.
Back in 2008 when Harris County became the first law enforcement agency in Texas to receive the training, the Chronicle’s Carolyn Feibel questioned not-yet-a-candidate-for-Senate Bill White about HPD participating:
White said, in essence, no.
“I think it will erode the capacity of local law enforcement if local law enforcement starts assuming more and more federal functions.”
[snip]
“I’d rather have our police figure out how to catch people who commit violent crimes, than become immigration lawyers.”
That’s the REAL Bill White.
