My blogging colleague Anne Linehan was far ahead of the curve* in Houston when she pointed out, back in March, the difference between Mayor Bill White and Senate-Candidate Bill White.
As the city has gone on autopilot and Senate-Candidate White has ramped up his campaign, we’ve only seen more such instances of our mayor working to redefine himself (as the expensive political consultants put it) for Texans outside of Houston, while pursuing different sorts of policies here in town.
So, it came as no surprise today when Susan Carroll reported for the Houston Chronicle that Mayor White is interested in scaling back the city’s newly adopted federal 287(g) program to screen people in the jail for immigration status:
City and police officials have been negotiating changes to the program since last month, when ICE approved Houston’s request to train its jailers through 287(g).
The city wants to write in specific instructions for HPD jailers to turn over to ICE only suspected illegal immigrants with “serious” records, such as state jail felonies or certain federal convictions.
Senate-Candidate White, however, insists that his efforts to scale back the program really aren’t efforts to scale back the program:
Mayor Bill White denied that the city would create a weaker version of the program implemented nationally. White said Wednesday that the city would target “noncitizens who have committed violent crimes, serious property crimes and serious narcotics crimes” to ensure they are deported after coming into the jails.
“That’s pretty strong,” White added.
It may well be “pretty strong.” It is also a weaker version of the program implemented nationally.
For that matter, it is a weaker version of the program implemented locally, right here in Harris County.
The New York Times had a fine piece on that very subject a few weeks ago, which probably prompted the Chronicle to try a little local reporting** of its own on this topic. We would encourage you to read reporter James McKinley’s reporting in its entirety.
One small part of that reporting caught our eye for its relevance to Mayor White’s efforts to weaken the program in City of Houston jails, to exclude “minor” offenses:
[W]hat constitutes a minor offense is a matter of debate.
Sheriff Adrian Garcia of Harris County says he regards most of the people tagged for deportation as criminals, including those arrested for drunken driving and drug possession. Fewer than one in 10 have been charged with traffic offenses and other “Class C” misdemeanors under state law, Sheriff Garcia noted.
“We are taking people off the streets of Houston, off the streets of Harris County, who have indicated they are not interested in following the rules around here,” he said.
It’s no wonder Dem partybloggers who have supported Adrian Garcia politically (yet frequently mock “TUFF ON CRIME” politicians) didn’t have much to say about that interesting New York Times story. At least on this issue, Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia seems to be in the “TUFF ON CRIME” camp (and we’re happy to be there with him).
The Chron‘s junior metro/state diarist*** apparently just could not resist commenting on this story (on the same day it came out — so much for that “division” between opinion and news):
At home, White the mayor hadn’t expressed any reluctance about the Houston Police Department joining the program.
But White the candidate seemed to indicate plenty of reservation: He stressed to the group that he hadn’t signed anything yet.
Was he playing a politician, or was there another reason for his reluctance? Well, after reading today’s story by the Chronicle’s Susan Carroll and Bradley Olson, I think, both. And, sometimes, that’s OK.
We’ve (almost) made our peace with the fact that there is no John Kass in this town, but that’s tepid stuff even by Chron sub-standards.
Anne Linehan’s formulation back in March was pretty darn good. If the ever-shrinking local newspaper insists on taking it out and playing with it, that’s flattering we suppose.
Except when the newspaper whiffs so badly. Then it’s just kind of embarrassing.
* When “the curve” is the current Chronicle metro/state columnist lineup, I’m a little hesitant to brag too much about being out in front.
** The newspaper that missed Enron really can’t be said to “own” the local space, especially when the metro desk is so understaffed. Indeed, the misidentification of the “Houston Police Union” in the Chron story only illustrates the sad point. But hey, they have a new Clear Lake blog!
*** Contrasted with the senior metro/state diarist, also known as The Plagiarist.
Immigration Detective image by flickr user Mike Licht/notionscapital.com, used via Creative Commons license.
