Fact Check: John Hall Called Out By Local Law Enforcement In The Hudson Valley
Fact Check: John Hall Called Out By Local Law Enforcement In The Hudson Valley
Putnam County Sheriff’s Office Angered By False Claims From Congressman’s Office
Washington – Congressman John Hall is in hot water with local law enforcement in the Hudson Valley after his office issued a press release containing statistics that the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office says are inaccurate.
According to the Putnam County News & Recorder, the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office is criticizing the two-term lawmaker’s erroneous claim that the Sheriff’s office contacted Immigrations & Customs Enforcement just twice in the past year to verify the status of illegal immigrants.
The article states that:
“Captain William McNamara of the Putnam Sheriff’s Department disputed the congressman’s claims. Capt. McNamara said, “under the protocols established between ICE and the Putnam Sheriff’s Department, ICE personnel are contacted in Castle Point at the agency’s Detention and Removal Office and not the ICE Enforcement Support Center in Vermont. The Dutchess County office is the action force that works with local law enforcement to detain and remove illegal aliens.”
According to the Department spokesman, in the past three years, the Putnam Sheriff’s Department reported 558 illegal immigrants who entered the Putnam Correctional Facility on state or local criminal charges. The contacts to ICE resulted in the lodging of 215 detainer warrants, as well as the turnover of 156 detainees to ICE custody. “In the past nine months, the Sheriff’s Department contacted ICE to report 150 illegal aliens—not two,” the spokesman said. “By any objective standard, no local law enforcement official in New York State has worked more diligently than Sheriff Smith at reporting and detaining criminal illegal aliens as well as forging a model of cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials.” (Eric Gross, “Sheriff: Hall Got It Wrong “, Putnam County News & Recorder, 7/28/09)
“John Hall has gone on the record to misrepresent the dedicated men and women of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office who are working hard to keep communities in the Hudson Valley safe and secure,” said NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain. “Coming from an elected official who supported a trillion-dollar stimulus without reading the bill, it’s no surprise that Hall can’t even scrutinize what’s being sent from his own office.”
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