{"id":7080,"date":"2014-06-26T10:59:55","date_gmt":"2014-06-26T14:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=7080"},"modified":"2018-12-28T14:53:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:53:43","slug":"this-date-in-obamas-administrative-amnesty-june-26-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2014\/06\/26\/this-date-in-obamas-administrative-amnesty-june-26-2010\/","title":{"rendered":"This Date in Obama\u2019s Administrative Amnesty: June 26, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 26, 2010, President Obama <\/span>named Harold <\/span>Hurtt<\/a>, former police chief of the sanctuary cities of Houston and Phoenix, to oversee the <\/span>287(g) Program<\/a>. 287(g) is a program authorized by the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act of 1996 that allows U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter into agreements with local law enforcement agencies to \u201cdeputize\u201d or cross-designate law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents within their jurisdictions. As police chief of Houston, not only did Hurtt actively <\/span>support<\/a> the city\u2019s <\/span>sanctuary policies<\/a>, but he also was highly critical of the <\/span>287(g) program<\/a>, the very program he was later asked to lead. In 2008, Hurtt <\/span>said<\/a> that local police \u201cdon\u2019t want to be immigration officers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One local police officer, Joslyn Johnson, disagreed. In 2006, Johnson\u2019s husband, Rodney Johnson<\/a>, another Houston Police officer, was<\/a> shot<\/a> four times in the head and killed by a previously deported illegal alien during a routine traffic stop. The illegal alien, Juan Leonardo Quintero<\/a>, was deported to Mexico in 1999 after being convicted of DWI, failure to stop, and child molestation. He had also been arrested<\/a> at least three times in Houston since reentering the country but because of the city\u2019s sanctuary policies was still at large in Houston. Joslyn Johnson was outraged<\/a> by Hurtt\u2019s appointment, believing that his policies put citizens and officers in danger in Houston and should not be extended throughout the country.<\/p>\n

Congress also criticized Hurtt\u2019s appointment. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa), said<\/a> \u201cI don’t know how [Obama] can do that given the record that [Hurtt] has. I think this is another piece in the puzzle to granting some type of de facto amnesty.\u201d This concern proved prescient.<\/p>\n

As one would expect from the President\u2019s appointment of an avowed opponent of 287(g) to oversee it, the Administration spent the next several years undoing the program. In February of 2012, the Administration sought to cut $17 million<\/a> in funding in its proposed budget, describing what was essentially a phase-out of the program. In July of 2012, the Obama Administration rescinded<\/a> the 287(g) Task Force agreements in Arizona. In September of 2012, it rescinded<\/a> the program in North Carolina. Finally, just before the holidays in December 2012, the Administration quietly announced<\/a> in a press release<\/a> that it would not be renewing any more task force model agreements, which would have allowed local law enforcement officers trained through the program to identify and remove illegal aliens anywhere in their jurisdiction.\u00a0 That announcement effectively dismantled the 287(g) program, despite the fact that it was duly enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1996.