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Politics

Miami-Dade Released 93 Illegal Aliens Charged with Serious Crimes in 2017 First Quarter

October 14, 2017 - 6:00am

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez -- fearful of losing important federal money if the county didn't comply with federal immigration detention requests -- didn't want his to be one of the jails that failed to cooperate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) detainer program.

Not that Miami-Dade was ever a declared "sanctuary county." Nevertheless, sympathy has always run deep in much of South Florida, where Hispanic heritage is a way of life, to shelter those seeking asylum.

Gimenez, a Republican whose family fled to Miami to escape Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution, wrote a letter to the county corrections department in January 2017: "In light of the provisions of (President Trump's just executed) Executive Order, I direct you and your staff to honor all immigration detainer requests received from the Department of Homeland Security."

But Gimenez's letter either didn't circulate or it was deliberately ignored.

According to Judicial Watch, in the first quarter of the year, Miami-Dade denied 93 ICE detainer requests, making it second only to Ventura County, Calif. (188) in counties denying such requests to hold criminal illegal aliens in the first quarter of 2017.

That's 93 individuals whose fingerprints were identified by other law enforcement agencies as belonging to persons of interest, charged with assault, drug or weapons violation -- but processed out before ICE agents could get to them, in defiance of the president's and mayor's orders.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez

An immigration detainer is a tool used by ICE and other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials when the agency identifies potentially deportable individuals who are held in jails or prisons nationwide.

Judicial Watch, the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, released Thursday two new productions of documents (45 pages and 680 pages) from DHS revealing hundreds of counties across the U.S. that denied ICE's detainer requests.

The requests contained specific information about scores of criminal charges against released aliens, according to Judicial Watch. The spreadsheets the organization released included statistics on the nature of criminal activities illegal aliens had committed during the first four months of 2017; a nationwide list of jails that failed to cooperate with the ICE detainer program; and the top 50 jurisdictions that failed to cooperative with the detainer program.
 
Besides Ventura and Miami-Dade, the top counties named with the number of denied detainers really were -- by their own definition -- sanctuary counties: Denver, Colo. (74); Clark, Nev. (68); and Los Angeles, Calif. (57).  A total of 284 detainers were declined during the first three months of fiscal year 2017, involving various forms of assault (16); drug-and-alcohol-related charges (39); weapons charges and crimes against persons and property (18).

When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders, say federal law enforcement agents, it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety and carry out its mission.

The Declined Detainer Outcome Reports, which Judicial Watch fought in court to open,  highlighted state and local governments that did not comply with ICE’s detainer program. According to one new ICE email, the DDOR was meant to be easily understood -- so an American citizen sitting at home can open the report, see the total number of detainers issued in a week, detainers issued to jurisdictions that don’t cooperate, the confirmed declined detainer list, and the list of all jurisdictions that don’t honor detainers.

In an April 6, 2017, email from Acting Director of Homeland Security Thomas Homan to Homeland Security staff, Homan said this:

"... NYC is extremely uncooperative. ... They removed our officers from Rikers Island and will not honor detainers. I met with them personally last year in an effort to gain more cooperation. We will review asap.

"In at least one instance, local law enforcement actions went beyond a simple lack of cooperation with ICE to turn over detained illegal aliens to outright obstruction of ICE’s efforts to pick up illegal immigrants in local custody. For example, according to a March 21, 2017, ICE email: “Hennepin County Adult Detention Center released an alien out the front door of the jail as an ICE officer was waiting in their sally port to take him into custody.”

Said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, “These new documents confirm that sanctuary policies are dangerous and help the worst of worst criminal element. The complaints of sanctuary politicians aside, the Trump administration must catalogue the continued threat to the public safety caused by lawless sanctuary policies.”

The city of Miami has never formally declared itself a sanctuary city, unlike New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and others. Miami-Dade County has refused to indefinitely detain inmates wanted by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency since 2013. However, The Miami Herald reported that policy is in place less because of ideology than because the feds didn't fully reimburse the county for holding the inmates.

Though Republicans in particular hailed Gimenez's bravery in honoring the president's January executive order, the mayor called his decision "a no-brainer." 

"When President Trump put out his order, I thought, you know, I think this gentleman is serious," Gimenez said on WPLG's "This Week in South Florida" on Feb. 4. "And by the way, we have $350 million in federal funding that we receive every year. And not only that, we are going to try and get hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars for our transit system. Which is completely discretionary federal money." 

Gimenez was unavailable Friday when Sunshine State News attempted to contact him.

Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith

Comments

Since it is illegal for jails to hold them after they are done being processed, they have no choice but release them or get sued. .......................... So if they want jails to hold them they need to pass the laws to hold them, pick them up timely and pay for their keep instead of blaming local police.................... How come no one bothers on the right to mention and fix it?............................ And the fact is Obama both deported more and far more dangerous illegals vs Trump is going after long term families that haven't broken the law other than being illegal.............................. And why they are all tied up in court jamming the system so they can't deport real criminals like Obama did.................... Trump, republicans are incompetent............... By this time next yr only racists like cbreeze and hypocritical Evangelicals will be left................. WWJD?

"jerry", "jerry", "jerry",.... Relax, take a break,...Halloween is 'just around the corner'...YOU can quite naturally "dress up" as a "Liberal"; So 'start practicing NOW' to fit your head up your azz...

Have you never heard of the "supremacy clause"?

Now that these states & counties NOT holding illegal alien criminals for ICE to pickup there are OTHER MEASURES to Penalize these SO CALL Sanctuary Cities....You about to see NOW what Pres.Trump going to do & it going to be funny how these PLACES react.then...Ha....

Judicial Watch is an organization for you to strongly consider donating to. They are uncovering everything in the swamp. They were the lead agency for the Clinton emails etc. As for Miami Dade. These officials should be arrested and placed in jail for violation our US Constitution. Are they crazy? The feds need to get tough with thee peon politicians that are on the lowest rung of politics. Who the f**k do they think they are putting good citizens in harms way? This isn't Hispanic vs. whites, blacks etc. This is about our safety and about order! It's time for them to be held accountable for their actions

Judicial Watch was "the lead agency for the Clinton emails"??? That's funny. JW is not an agency - it is a private right-wing conservative organization that spreads a lot of unfounded claims and out-right lies. Google before you put your hard earned money on this group. http://www.snopes.com/tag/judicial-watch/ http://www.snopes.com/hillary-clinton-800000-votes-non-citizens/ http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/doj.asp

Wow! This article is insulting on so many levels.....................First implying that the good citizens and govt officials of South Florida would harbor violent criminals just because they have Hispanic heritage, "Nevertheless, sympathy has always run deep in much of South Florida, where Hispanic heritage is a way of life, to shelter those seeking asylum."..........Then they believe you will simply accept whatever they say, and whatever Judicial Watch claims. They don't think you are smart enough to check the data........ Rule of thumb: Judicial Watch has an unsavory history of shading the truth - don't believe anything from them without verifying........The documents linked from the article were produced by JW - they are not the original govt docs............... JW and the writer imply the problem of releasing violent offenders is worse than it may be (other data show it is not). They imply that 284 violent criminals were released, but check the numbers......Why throw out that number when their breakdown doesn't support it? They think their readers are too lazy to verify...........The truth is, anti-immigrant forces don't want ANY immigrants (whether "illegal" or not) who they consider undesirable, 2nd class. So they do whatever it takes to create a false notion that they are all violent criminals, murders, rapist and drug mules.

Just ONE MORE GLARING REASON to divide Florida into TWO States at Tampa's northern City border (Tampa could then assume that "New States" Capitol government); and leave the rest of us in a more sane environment sans "walk on" Hispanic politicians from "choiceless elections" (with Puerto Rico as the imminent and inevitable "model").

President Trump........... We have a lot of Obama people still working in our Federal Systems that are making illegal decision on purpose, with the thought that "We The People", will never know.? Also there are many Latinos and Cubans working in our system that are sympathetic . They must be poly-graphed and removed from the decision making process, so we REMOVE ALL illegals from our Great Country? Hey Federal employee's, we will find you and weed you out..... to prison for treason. Yes, there are crimes committed across the country by Federal employee's. It looks like we have the goods on some in the Miami System. What and who are they Judicial Watch?

How ignorant!!! Do you really think that every federal employee who was hired while Obama was president should be fired??? What is the source for your claims? "...that "a lot of Obama people....are making illegal decisions, and making them on purpose"? How do you know there are "many Latinos and Cubans [ in the federal govt] that are sympathetic." .................Do you not understand that your premises/suggestion to poly-graph people without cause, but simply because they have a certain heritage - sounds a whole lot like fascism and violation of the US Constitution?

Need a "source"? Well, just look at the morons who have converted States, cities and local areas to "sanctuaries"... Primarily all "run" by hispanics or liberal Democrat politicians pandering to hispanics. OBAMA is bad, corrosive "history"...GOOD RIDDANCE TO DESTRUCTIVE TIMES ! Blacks are finally beginning to "wake up" to having been taken advantage of, by Democrat politicians ever since "Reconstruction" ("The South HAS risen again",... and it has "risen" REPUBLICAN !)

I don’t get it. Federal Laws are suppose to trump State and Local laws, right? This trend makes no sense to me. Don’t the Federal Laws have a predetermined penalty to them. If not, they should. Failure to comply should be criminal and an individual or members of an acting body should be charged with the crime! I would bet that those individuals are primarily Democrats in the same proportions as volunteers are for our military. 2 Republicans to 1 Democrat volunteer for our military. Think about the implication of that fact!

NO,.. Federal law does NOT trump State law; States are SOVEREIGN (look it up !); We are the "united" States of America; We are NOT the "American Union" (like the "European Union" of individual COUNTRIES) !. and additionally, STATE law is often superceded by Local Ordinances (laws). (YOU "Chappy", my friend, need some "Civics" lessons) . REMEMBER also: politicians are elected (often by largely ill-informed voters), and our Military members are volunteers (but are, at times, conscripted (drafted) to deal with National emergencies threatening the population of the country).

The states are sovereign but have delegated specific powers to the federal government. Naturalization, thus immigration, is one of those power. Miami is violating the Constitution when they harbor and release these illegals. It is YOU who needs a civics lesson.

The "delegated enumerated powers" are 'understood' "Frank" (Do you really "expect points" for 'getting down' into the unnecessary minutia in a "comment" forum ?)

Frank, being an illegal alien is not a "crime" but a "civil infraction". You don't get arrested for a civil infraction or get sentenced to jail or prison. It's unAmerican to hold somebody in jail for a civil infraction that they wouldn't even be sentenced to jail or prison in the 1st place. (See the Declaration of Independence. It's one of the greivences the Colonists had against King George.) I don't like illegals either, but it's not accurate to call them "criminals".

But illegal aliens ARE criminals

Charles, would you please provide the sources of your claims?

I think you may be confusing federal "laws" with executive orders, or agency rule-making.

Comments are now closed.

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