Deporting illegal immigrants: Collier sheriff’s program puts 2,200 on ICE in two years

By ELYSA BATISTA, RYAN MILLS
Posted December 19, 2009 at 6 p.m.

Detectives Brian Culnan, right, Thom Cullen work full time for the Criminal Alien Task Force, the department of the Collier County Sheriff's Office under the 287(g) partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "We're not just going and picking people up off the street," said Culnan adding that 80 per cent of their work is done in the office investigating career criminals who are not in the United States legally. Lexey Swall/Staff

Photo by LEXEY SWALL
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Sgt. Chris Dasher, the supervisor for the Criminal Alien Task Forced department of the Collier County Sheriff's Office, looks at a list of alien criminals that have been picked up under the 287(g) partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Lexey Swall/Staff
Documents
CCSO / ICE detainer list

Collier County Sheriff's Office

Jesus Dimas. Arrested in Feb. 2009 and deported. He’d been arrested at least seven times before on charges ranging from drug possession to carrying a concealed firearm and use of a firearm while intoxicated. He was an alleged member of the Morgan Boyz street gang.

Juan Jose Gomez-Lopez

Collier County Sheriff's Office

Adriana Cortes-Sobal was arrested in May 2009 for driving without a license and deported, despite having no prior criminal history.
Editor’s note: First of two parts. Coming Monday: Families left behind.

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NAPLES - Palm trees line the roads and the beach is still a short drive away.

But it’s the little things that let Hilma Dimas know that she’s in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, and no longer in Southwest Florida.

Parts of the city are dusty, roads are named after Mexican historical figures and iron bars dominate the windows in many neighborhoods. Instead of classic rock, it’s Tejano music that blares from the windows of neighboring cars, waiting to make the sometimes two-hour-long crossing into Brownsville, Texas.

Then there’s her accent.

“It’s the first give-away that I’m not a local,â€