In my 10+ years of law enforcement, I have arrested many illegal aliens for crimes ranging from traffic misdemeanors to firearms charges to aggravated domestic violence. I have never seen Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) (or the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) before them) show up and take one of these illegal aliens into custody. In fact, when called, ICE/INS would always say “not interested.”
In a recent case in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area, three illegal aliens were responsible for multiple armed kidnappings and rapes. Two of the three had been previously arrested, but never deported. David Gee, the Hillsborough County Sheriff, said his department contacted ICE when the subjects were originally arrested. ICE claims they were never contacted.
In another case out of Aurora, CO, an illegal alien was arrested after crashing his vehicle into a truck, killing three people including a toddler. This illegal alien had 16(!) prior arrests, but was never deported by ICE. ICE claims they were never contacted on any of the 16 prior arrests. In fact, ICE even went so far as to say the local officers probably didn’t know he was an illegal alien and that is why the locals never called ICE.
However, Aurora police records indicate that when they arrested the illegal alien on April 25, for speeding and driving without a license, they contacted ICE, who refused to respond. In fact, Aurora police records indicate that Aurora PD made more than 2500 referrals to ICE in 2007, but ICE only responded “a fraction of the time.”
Unfortunately, this is a scene that is played out daily. Local law enforcement arrests an illegal alien for a crime not related to their immigration status and ICE refuses to get involved. According to ICE spokesman Ivan Ortiz, illegal aliens involved in aggravated felonies should be turned over to ICE for deportation. But those involved in “less serious” offenses (like regular felonies?), might get a notice to appear before an immigration judge.
Right. Does ICE really think people who illegally entered the country, and have committed new crimes, are going to voluntarily show up for court? How about this concept: deport illegal aliens who have been arrested for their criminal acts? I guess that kind of thinking doesn’t play well in D.C.
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Clearly you are a right wing racist. Don’t you know they’re only committing the heinous crimes Americans won’t commit themselves?
/end sarc
i work at a co jail in tn and am also a reserve police officer at a local police department. i see this on a regular basis. in fact i personally called ICE more than once and never got a response. i have 2 yrs at this jail and 1 yr and a reserve police officer. why havent i ever seen ICE pick up anybody? and i know that some critic will say that i have no “real world” experience due to limited time in law enforcement. i was in the army for 5 and a half years and in combat twice, so i not just some dumb kid. thank you for saying what we all think.
I work for a northwest Ohio agency of 28 officers and in the last three weeks, my shift has arrested six illegals and every one of them was picked up by ICE and returned to their country of origin. The Cinnci office of ICE has been great.
I work for a bay area agency and surprisingly, in this liberal area, ICE frequently comes by our jail for illegals. Sometimes they call our jail and initiate the process. Its great, some good guys working in the area office.
But if they’re being charged with a crime, why deport them so they will only come back to the U.S.?
Why not prosecute and incarcerate them?