Immigrants with criminal records able to return after deportation
Crime victim, sheriffs, border patrol unhappy with federal immigration policy
Author: Jace Larson, Investigative Reporter
Lauren Sweeney, Investigative Producer
Robert Arnold, Investigative Reporter,
Published On: 49 m Updated 47 m
HOUSTON - Spencer Golvach owned his own small business and worked two jobs to keep his guitar shop afloat until he was killed by a man who had been deported numerous times.
“He was really a sweet guy,” Spencer Golvach’s father, Dan Golvach, said.
"He never actually saw it coming. He was shot right here at the ear,” his mom, Julie Golvach, said.
Victor Reyes, a man with a criminal record, who had been deported only to sneak back into the United States illegally, allegedly killed Spencer Golvach as he sat at a stop light at U.S. 290 and Mangum Road on Jan. 31.
Investigators said they believe Reyes killed another man that night before police killed him in a shootout.
Illegal re-entry after deportation
Reyes is one of thousands of deportees who the federal government couldn’t keep out of the United States. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement representative in Houston said he isn't sure how many times Reyes slipped back into the United States because even though a coroner reviewed his body, ICE agents couldn’t be sure of his identity.
Channel 2 Investigates found numerous reports detailing Reyes' deportations.
Statistics about immigrants who have been deported after entering the United States illegally only to return are hard to come by.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s report that analyzed 18,498 illegal re-entry cases brought by federal prosecutors in fiscal year 2013 gives a snapshot.
According to the report, 96.8 percent of illegal re-entry offenders were men and 98.1 percent were Hispanic. The average age was 36. They're usually Hispanic men in their 30s.
Two-thirds have relatives in the United States. Half of the offenders have children in America.
On average, repeat deportees have been sent back three times. Most have prior criminal records averaging four convictions -- not counting traffic tickets, the report says.
Prioritizing deportations
Texas sheriffs told Channel 2 Investigates that ICE's new Priority Enforcement Program, known as PEP, is making the problem worse.
Jackson County Sheriff AJ Louderback said he and other sheriffs are worried PEP creates a system where some immigrants who get in the U.S. illegally may be allowed to stay even if they've committed a crime.
“We have a system that has completely gutted a system for criminal aliens in this country,” said Louderback, who is the legislative director for the Texas Sheriffs Association.
PEP went into effect in November.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote a memo establishing PEP and discontinuing the Secure Communities program, which had been established by Congress and put in place in 2008.
Johnson’s memo outlines how PEP should work: Efforts should focus on immigrants who have committed serious or repeat crimes, are a threat to national or border security, or those who recently sneaked into the U.S.
But the memo also gives agents discretion. It explains that agents should consider things like the person’s “community ties,” “length of time in the U.S.” or if they have a “seriously ill relative.”
“This is just flat out a bad program. This does nothing to strengthen the border. It does nothing to make America safer,” said Shawn Moran, a veteran border patrol agent and vice president of the National Border Patrol Council.
Moran and the sheriffs also expressed concern about immigrants charged with crimes who get out on bond.
“They may not show up for any future court date and they may not ever be found again,” said Moran.
In the past, ICE would ask local jails to put what’s called a detainer on an immigrants charged with crimes who would otherwise be released on bond.
Local jails would hold those individuals until federal agents were able to pick them up, but recent court rulings found that process unconstitutional. Therefore, PEP directs ICE to limit the use of detainers and instead ask jails to notify them when an immigrant in the county illegaliy is about to bond out.
The memo states ICE can now only ask for detainers in special circumstances and that it "must specify that the person is subject to a final order of removal, or there is other sufficient probable cause to find that the person is a removable alien.”
"So where is that inmate going to end up? He's going to remain (in) the United States,” said Louderback.
Channel 2 Investigates filed a Freedom of Information Act request for specific numbers on how many immigration detainers ICE had requested from Houston-area jails, and how many of those inmates ended up being deported.
The request has not yet been returned.
Inaction by Congress
Dan Golvach didn’t care much about politics until his son’s murder, but that has changed.
"I'm extremely angry. I'm mostly angry at my politicians,” Golvach said.
Ultimately, Congress could create policy to change immigration enforcement and border control, but legislative staffers said right now it’s not a priority.
“I don’t see it on the horizon. I don’t,” Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, said when asked by KPRC 2 News’ Jace Larson if he sees a solution coming in the next year.
Poe said he is frustrated but can’t act on the issue alone.
“Immigration problems, border security problems -- they were a problem when I went to Congress and those problems still exist,” said Poe.
Channel 2 Investigates attempted to interview House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R- Texas, on the issue. His press secretary said he would not be answering questions or making any statements about immigration policy at this time.
McCaul sponsored a bill aimed at securing the U.S. border with Mexico in January, but that legislation does not address how to handle illegal immigrants who commit crimes, or repeat deportees.
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