Roberts: 33 immigrants freed and who's to blame?
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone has gotten his first public poke in the nose. Thursday’s newspaper headline said it all:
“33 who would have faced ICE holds freed by county so far”
I imagine the high fives were flying over at ICE. Payback, after all, is a pleasure.
ICE officials have been fuming since Friday evening, when Penzone abruptly announced a change in the way inmates with immigration detainers would be handled. No longer would MCSO hold suspects beyond their court-ordered release time. Instead, ICE would have to pick them up after upon their release from jail.
This, on advice received at 4 p.m. Friday from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which cited constitutional concerns.
ICE was not amused and immediately played the D card: DANGER.
“Immigration detainers have been a successful enforcement tool to prevent the release of dangerous criminals to our streets and mitigate the possibility of future crimes being committed against the residents of our communities,” a spokesman said on Saturday.
Given that, you’d think the ICE would have been on hand outside the sheriff’s office over the last week to arrest these dangerous criminals as they came out the door.
Instead, ICE let them walk free. This, because they weren’t allowed inside the jail to make the arrests.
Thirty-three releases later, let me count the screw-ups.
Screw-up No. 1: MCSO
While it’s certainly a pleasant surprise to have a sheriff who strives to avoid getting us sued for violating people’s constitutional rights, Penzone should have thought this thing through before racing to make this wholesale change to longstanding jail release policies.
Surely, there is a place inside the jails that ICE agents could take immigrants into custody after their release from MCSO.
“We don’t know legally if we can allow them inside,” MCSO spokesman Mark Casey told me on Thursday. “We are asking for advice from the county attorney to determine what a handoff process would look like.”
What, you don’t think that’s a conversation that should have taken place before you started releasing inmates with ICE holds?
On this, Penzone blew it. He should figure out a way to legally transfer custody of suspected illegal immigrants to ICE while inside the building.
But not all the blame for this mess should be heaped upon his shoulders. There is also…
Screw-up No. 2: Immigration and Customs Enforcement
ICE would have us believe that their beleaguered agents were just supposed to hang around jail parking lots 24/7 on the off-chance that an illegal immigrant would be walking out the door.
MCSO says they notified ICE before each release – twice. ICE got a call five to eight hours before the inmate’s release, Casey said, and again about 20 minutes before the release.
What? ICE couldn’t back a van into the parking lot and collar their man (or woman) once they walked out the door 20 minutes later?
Surely, that would be easier than having to run wily nily all over the countryside looking for them.
Then again, it sure makes for a nice headline ...