Houston's sancutary city policy is getting people killed

In a hospital in Houston's Medical Center, Houston Police Officer Richard Alter is fighting for his life. The 27-year HPD veteran, husband, father of two and Texas Aggie was shot in the face by repeat offender Wilfido Joel Alfaro, who was arrested on a myriad of charges five different times. What makes matters worse is that this punk shouldn't have even been in the country--he's an illegal immigrant from El Salvador.

The last Houston police officer shot in the line of duty was Rodney Johnson, who was murdered in 2006 by a man he was arresting. That man was also an illegal.

These incidents are tragedies. The outrage is that Mayor Bill White, Police Chief Harold Hurtt and the Houston City Council bear a portion of the responsibilty for both of these incidents. After all, they were the supporters and enforcers of the Sanctuary City policy.

The Sanctuary City policy is a liberal concept that has been supported by cities like San Francisco and Seattle. Basically, this policy prevents anyone from inquiring about whether a person is in this country legally. This precludes police officers, when arresting someone, from inquiring about their immigration status.

The policy also prevents the city from cooperating with any federal effort to deport illegal aliens.

White has long supported the policy. Hurtt, a first-class idiot, says that HPD officers are law-enforcement officers, not immigration officers, and shouldn't be bothered with immigration matters.

That's utter stupidity.

Avila was deported in 2001 after serving time, and came back into the country. He was arrested in Houston not once, not twice, but three times. He should have been tossed out on his butt years ago, but because of the Sanctuary City policy, he was still here.

So what does Bill White do? Rips the feds for not doing enough to get these people out of here. He says that more must be done to fix the federal database so people know whether an inmate is here illegally.

Ok, Bill--but, by law, you and your police department are not supposed to help in these efforts. If you did, and turned your records over to the INS or DEA or whoever, maybe these things wouldn't happen.

Rodney Johnson is dead. Rick Alter's fighting for his life. And Houston's idiot mayor and moron police chief are furiously looking to pass the buck instead of supporting their officers.