Lake jail tapped to assist immigration officials

By Anthony Colarossi

6:28 p.m. EST, December 16, 2009

TAVARES — The Lake County Jail is one of 16 across Florida participating in a federal program designed to identify dangerous or serious criminals living in the U.S. illegally.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Lake's inclusion in the program Wednesday along with the facilities in Highlands and Monroe counties. Lake began using the system last week, federal authorities said.

The "Secure Communities" program allows jail officials to match fingerprints of everyone brought into the Tavares facility against those in a database of immigration records maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The prints are also checked against a federal Department of Justice database that contains criminal backgrounds. Officials hope the combined data searches will help local and federal authorities identify people who have significant criminal histories and are illegal immigrants.

Once federal authorities learn that suspects held at the jail meet certain benchmarks and might be eligible for deportation, they can process those cases, ICE spokeswoman Nicole Navas said.

"It's really just another law enforcement enhancement tool," Navas said. "It allows us to ensure that they [serious criminal offenders] won't be released back into the community."

ICE officials are particularly interested in Level 1 offenders, those suspected illegal immigrants who also have major criminal backgrounds. Those include convictions for rape, drug offenses, murder and kidnapping.

"We're prioritizing dangerous criminals," Navas said. "Each case is going to be reviewed on its own merits."

"This tool will undoubtedly be an invaluable resource in helping local authorities quickly identify and process for deportation those illegal immigrants who are a threat to their communities," Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders said in a statement.

Borders' department has been aggressive against suspected illegal immigrants. That stance has gained the sheriff praise by some in the community and criticism from others.

In July, the Orlando Sentinel documented more than 200 cases in which Borders' office detained suspected illegal immigrants without underlying criminal charges and without being part of a federal program that authorizes local law enforcement to handle some immigration functions.

Critics accused Borders' office of racial profiling. Borders vehemently denied such claims.

Navas said the program only involves people arrested and booked into the participating jails. And she said it gives local law enforcement agencies no direct authority to handle immigration cases. She could not say what factors led to Lake being chosen as one of the facilities taking part in the program, but past cases involving criminal illegal immigrants and distance from immigration processing facilities may have been factors.

"It's all different factors that came into play in the program," Navas said.

Federal authorities hope to have all of the country's law enforcement agencies participating in the program by 2013, Navas said.

Since the program started a little more than a year ago, about 11,000 Level 1 offenders have been identified nationwide, Navas said. About 1,900 were deported.

In Florida, 12 counties identified roughly 2,979 Level 1 matches. Of them, 182 were removed from the U.S., she said.

The 12 other counties in the Secure Communities program are: Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Clay, Collier, Duval, Hillsborough, Manatee, Marion, Miami-Dade, St. Johns and St. Lucie.

Anthony Colarossi can be reached at acolarossi@orlandosentinel.com

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