Thread: Guidelines free 1 in 3 after arrests

Sunday, 06/10/07

Feds open holes in Metro Jail deportation plan
Guidelines free 1 in 3 after arrests

By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF
and LINDSEY NAYLOR
Staff Writers


Nearly a third of illegal immigrants identified during the first six weeks of a new Metro Jail program were simply released on their honor, without posting bail or a bond.

Those released are given notices to appear at immigration hearings in Memphis or Oakdale, La., though anecdotal evidence suggests the vast majority of those people fail to show up.




"We've heard 10-20 percent will go to court, and the rest probably will not," said Deputy Tom Davis, director of immigration enforcement for the Davidson County Sheriff's Office.

While the number of local prisoners handed over to federal immigration officials is up dramatically since Metro launched its program in mid-April, the releases could point to a gaping hole in the plan that aims to deport illegal immigrants who get arrested in the Nashville area.

"I am very concerned about any illegal alien that is released without any bond," said James D. Jones, who heads the group Independent America First Party of Tennessee, which advocates stiffer policies against illegal immigration.

They "have already proven that they can't be trusted because they broke a multitude of America's laws by just coming here illegally," he said. "They should be held without bond."

Prompted by several high-profile crimes in which undocumented immigrants were implicated, Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall last year pushed for Metro to enter a partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to let local deputies enforce immigration laws.

Hall had complained that many illegal immigrants were repeatedly being arrested and released because federal authorities would only place immigration holds on the most serious offenders. Often, prisoners were released after federal authorities failed even to respond with the inmate's immigration status.

This year, 15 Davidson County deputies underwent immigration training and a computer system was installed in the Metro Jail allowing access to federal immigration records. Local deputies now check the immigration status of every foreign-born person booked into Nashville's main lockup.

Between April 15 and May 31, 476 Metro Jail prisoners were identified as illegal immigrants. Of those, 213 were ordered held without bail. Another 113 were released on immigration bonds. The rest, 150, were set free on their own recognizance.

At least 22 of the immigrants had been deported before.

The 213 inmates held on immigration orders during the program's first 45 days marks a sharp increase from the 151 Metro Jail prisoners subjected to immigration holds in all of 2006.

Guidelines set releases

Immigration rules mandate the release of certain illegal immigrants, officials said.

Karla Crocker, spokeswoman for the Davidson County Sheriff's Office, said, "There are specific guidelines that we have to follow as far as considering who would be released on their own recognizance, who would be detained without bond and who would be issued an immigration bond and given the opportunity to be released."

Federal policy calls for the release of certain illegal immigrant detainees who are deemed "low risk," said Temple Black, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"If someone is encountered, and we've never encountered them before, there is a low risk," he said. "We also have mothers with children, and children need to be taken care of."

"Those are all factors that need to be taken care of individually … We look at everything on a case-by-case basis. We're very careful."

Husband held, wife frets

Undocumented immigrants booked on misdemeanor offenses have a strong chance of being released without bond if they have no prior criminal history or previous immigration offenses, local and federal officials said.

Jocelyn Peralta of Nashville doesn't think it's fair that her husband, a citizen of Argentina, faces deportation when so many other illegal immigrants are being released.

Gustavo Daniel Peralta was jailed April 30 for driving without a valid license and for failing to appear in court on a 2002 charge of soliciting a prostitute. Once in the Metro Jail, deputies found that he had overstayed his visa in 2000 and disappeared.

Gustavo Peralta married Jocelyn, an American citizen, and became stepfather to her four children, ages 9, 8, 6 and 5.

He is jailed in a Louisiana detention center, awaiting deportation proceedings. His wife worries about how she'll support the kids and pay the mortgage on their Nashville home without the family's main breadwinner.

http://www.fairviewobserver.com/apps/pb ... 321/MTCN06

Maybe Mrs. Peralta should have weighed the consequences of letting "the main breadwinner" in the house be someone of dubious legal status. Sounds like Mom needed to think of the childrens welfare first.I don't mean to sound cruel here but, I am tired of hearing these cases of a wife/mother being totally "caught unawares" when the man of the house gets caught and deported! You all KNEW the chances you were taking! Now that it didn't turn out in your favor its "unfair" Grow Up! You rolls the dice you takes your chances.