Thread: Deportation lets hundreds in Dallas County avoid prosecution

Deportation lets hundreds in Dallas County avoid prosecution

11:52 AM CST on Saturday, November 14, 2009
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
jemily@dallasnews.com

Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent crimes in Dallas County have been deported by federal immigration officials and then set free in their home countries.

The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape suspects. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they're required to deport illegal immigrants quickly but are now in talks with local agencies who are trying to resolve the problem.

Across Texas and the nation, defendants post bail and are immediately taken to immigration facilities, where they volunteer to be deported. Just how often this happens isn't clear.

One survey of prosecutors shows that since 1991 in Dallas County, nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants have not stood trial after being accused of felonies. That number also counts cases in which a wanted person fled before being arrested, but does not include all Dallas County cases – just ones that prosecutors judged to be of the highest priority.

Those who post bail and agree to then be sent home are taking advantage of the system to escape justice, said Terri Moore, top assistant to District Attorney Craig Watkins.

"Our No. 1 goal is to protect the public, to hold the individual accountable for crimes they commit," Moore said. "Defendants are using it as a means to avoid prosecution."


No quick fixes

Officials from the DA's office, the Dallas County Sheriff's Department and ICE met this week to discuss the problem. No quick fixes were found, but they plan to meet again, officials said.

Ernesto Fierro, an investigator with the DA's office, said that about a year ago, he compiled a list of about 1,000 instances in which illegal immigrants weren't prosecuted after being accused of felonies.

Fierro, who spent much of his personal time collecting the information, estimates that most were deported but said many others fled to their home countries before being taken into custody. He did not have a breakdown of how many defendants fit into each category.

The roughly 1,000 cases represent only those that prosecutors reported to him on "a wish list" of defendants they most wanted to take to trial – those accused of the most serious crimes. Many other incidents of illegal immigrants leaving the country without facing charges may not yet have been documented by Fierro.

A spokesman for ICE said its agents can't hold people while trials are pending.

"By law, we must process them and return them to their countries without delay," said Carl Rusnok. "We cannot hold them while a prosecutor develops charges."

Rusnok said ICE would be willing to listen and see if there was a way to help local law enforcement. But he added that local agencies need to understand that ICE's priority is deporting illegal immigrants.

The agency's policies led to the deportation of one defendant, Jose Rico, who returned to Mexico before he could stand trial in the rape of two girls in separate incidents. DNA connected him to both sexual assaults, court records show.

Both girls, ages 12 and 14, were bound with clear duct tape. The attacker told one of the girls: "I have a gun. I will kill you."

Rico, 34, posted his $125,000 bond and was deported in August.


Problem isn't new

Dan Kowalski, an Austin-based immigration attorney, said the problem is no worse now in Texas or across the country than it has been in the past. He said the predicament is merely a lack of communication between prosecutors and immigration officials.

Kowalski said ICE scores more "brownie points" if it deports illegal immigrants after they've been convicted. He said that he is unsure why agents wouldn't wait for a trial.

"If ICE knows they are getting custody from a county jail ... ICE is either really incompetent or they are going to deport them the easy way," Kowalski said.

In Dallas County, judges this week took a step toward decreasing the chances that someone in the country illegally will post bond and be deported before trial. Judges began setting the bail at $100,000 per charge if a defendant is in the country illegally.

Under the new system, the bail for Rico, the child rape suspect, probably would have been $200,000.

This same measure has been used with success in other parts of the country to keep defendants from posting bond and being voluntarily deported. But that won't necessarily fix the problem. Those held at the Dallas County Jail are sometimes given a bail amount before officials know whether they are in the country illegally, said state District Judge Mike Snipes. Notification can take days, he said.

Snipes said officials need to more quickly identify illegal immigrants charged with crimes, possibly by having the arresting agency or Sheriff's Department check on suspected illegal immigrants' status as soon as suspects are brought to jail.

But Kim Leach, the sheriff's spokeswoman, said doing so could be construed as racial profiling. Authorities could not check someone's immigration status simply because they had a Hispanic last name.

Leach said someone from ICE used to be at the jail 40 hours a week to run immigration status checks. Having that position returned could be a solution, she said.

Currently, computers at the Dallas County Jail and ICE are synced to help identify those in the country illegally. This relatively new system allows fingerprints to be simultaneously run through a national database and a Homeland Security database to check the immigration status of someone under arrest.

It's not clear whether any of those deported committed further crimes or re-entered the United States. But Moore said those accused of some crimes probably believe they have no reason to stay away.

"I think it depends on what you did. If you committed a capital murder ... we'll have to hunt you down," she said. "But on some of these other crimes, they'll just lay low awhile."

Watkins said in a prepared statement that investigators from his office first met with law enforcement officials more than a year ago to discuss the problem. He said that since he took office, his prosecutors and investigators have successfully kept some illegal immigrants from fleeing before trial.

"This issue is not new and it was not created by this administration," he said. "However, we are doing everything we can to solve it."

CRIME CATEGORIES
An investigator with the Dallas County district attorney's office found nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants who were not tried for crimes they were accused of. He said most were deported by immigration officials before they could stand trial. But many were never arrested. The cases go back to 1991 and don't include all cases in the DA's office.


Murder 128

Attempted murder 18

Manslaughter 16

Negligent homicide 3

Child abuse 409

Sexual assault 54

Aggravated assault 307

Aggravated robbery, kidnapping, other 49


http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... 8d6ba.html

It doesn't matter if they serve time in jail or not as long as they don't come back here. In Miami Dade County there have been MS-13 members who were arrested served time and came back after being deported. There are felons who choose to flee back home and then come back here even though they are wanted by the U.S. Marshall Service. I posted a case like that from Miami.