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What happens to those illegal alien offenders you locked up and then turned over to ICE? According to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, a lot of times they just let the individuals go free. Federal immigration officials let thousands of inmates in the nation’s third-most populous county walk out of jail despite the suspects admitting they were in the U.S. illegally, the Chronicle investigation discovered.
More than 3,500 inmates told Harris County jailers they were in the country illegally over an eight-month period starting in June 2007. But records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed paperwork to detain about 25 percent of them.
The Houston Chronicle found that most illegal immigrants released from jail were accused of minor crimes. But others included convicted child molesters, rapists, and those ordered deported decades ago.
ICE officials said they are doing the best they can with their resources – an annual operating budget of about $5 billion.
“No agency has enough law enforcement officers to do the job the way they’d like,” Kenneth Landgrebe, ICE’s field office director for detention and removal in Houston, told the Chronicle.
ICE officials said between 300,000 and 450,000 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. are eligible for deportation each year.
The agency admits it screens inmates in only about 10 percent of the nation’s jails. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites        
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