Thread: CO:Video shows why suspected illegals were let go

Video shows why suspected illegal immigrants were let go
written by: Colleen Locke reported by: Paula Woodward 1 day ago


AURORA - When Aurora Police released 13 suspected illegal immigrants onto the streets of Aurora after a speeding stop in August, police told 9 Wants to Know they got hundreds of e-mails and phone calls from angry citizens.

9 Wants to Know obtained the dash cam video of the incident at Interstate 70 and Tower Road.

On the video, the officer that stops the van with the people inside reports, "It's a red Dodge Caravan occupied by about 15 illegal immigrants."

After calling for backup, the officer tries to get help from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A half-hour later, three more Aurora officers arrive to remove the suspected illegal immigrants from the van. Forty-seven minutes later, ICE agents still haven't arrived.

"ICE isn't going to do anything with them, you know, because they don't have any bed room for them," the officer says on the video.

Two hours and 21 minutes after making the traffic stop, the officer lets 13 of the 14 people go. Aurora Police arrested the driver of the van because he had an outstanding warrant from ICE.

Federal law says only ICE or officers trained by ICE can determine if people are here illegally and arrest them. If ICE can't respond and there are no outstanding warrants, the officers have to let the people go.

9 Wants to Know spoke with a number of country sheriffs. Nearly all of them said ICE field agents don't have enough people to do the job they are being asked to do.

"Unfortunately, media coverage centers on the rare occasions when ICE is unable to respond due to higher operational priorities, staffing constraints, or both," said Carl Rusnok with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Dallas, speaking about the incident in Aurora.

Attorney General John Suthers is sympathetic to the ICE field agents. He says the agents work hard and do a good job, but there simply aren't enough of them.

"They can't simply respond in a matter of minutes and local authorities can't hold them indefinitely waiting for ICE to respond," said Suthers.

9 Wants to Know called all 64 sheriffs in the state to find out how often law enforcement has to let suspected illegal immigrants go. Only the Cheyenne County sheriff keeps track. Since July 2007, deputies caught 62 suspected illegal immigrants. No one now knows where any of the 62 people are today.

Aurora Police also don't know where any of the 13 people released in the August traffic stop are today.

Seth Donovan from Coloradans for Immigrant Rights has spent four years working for immigrant rights. She believes there aren't good answers for illegal immigrants packed into vans, but says understanding the desperation is a start, and the problem has to be fixed at the national policy level.

"Fourteen people in a minivan is finding a desperate way to survive, to get somewhere that you can work. These people are trying to get somewhere that they can survive as a human being and also provide for their families," said Donovan.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx? ... &catid=188

Attorney General John Suthers is sympathetic to the ICE field agents. He says the agents work hard and do a good job, but there simply aren't enough of them.

There's simple no excuse for this 7 years after 9/11. Despite the sporadic enforcement over the past year or so, and some progress on the fence, the border is still far from secure and our immigration laws are still far from consistently enforced. This shows why any logical person cannot agree to another amnesty.

This is exacly why congress needs to give authority to local and state police to enforce the immigration laws ( detain, arrest and deport), or at least have the authority to put them on buses and transport them to the nearest dentention center....

come on work with us here, this is the 21 century you are in the United States of America, figure it out! I guess you could send them to the moon you figured that out almost 30 years ago!

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