The Associated Press
HOUSTON – Federal immigration officials let thousands of inmates in the nation’s third-largest county walk out of jail even though the suspects admitted they were in the U.S. illegally, a newspaper investigation found.
More than 3,500 inmates told Harris County jailers they were in the country illegally over an eight-month period starting in June 2007. But records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed paperwork to detain only about a fourth of those suspects.
The Houston Chronicle found that most suspects released were accused of minor crimes. But others included convicted child molesters, rapists and some who were ordered deported decades ago.
The Chronicle obtained its figures based, in part, on a database of inmates who tell jailers they are in the U.S. illegally. During the review period, ICE also filed paperwork to detain 2,500 suspects not included in the database.
ICE officials said they are doing the best they can with their resources, and that the agency prioritizes cases.
“No agency has enough law enforcement officers to do the job the way they’d like,” said Kenneth Landgrebe, ICE’s field office director for detention and removal in Houston.
Among those previously released were Miguel Mejia Rodriguez, 36, who is currently jailed on charges of raping and sodomizing a second-grader. In 2006, he was arrested, accused of touching himself in an apartment parking lot, and he told jailers he was in the country illegally, but ICE did not file paperwork to detain him.
He served a 25-day sentence and was released.
Matthew Baker, an assistant field office director for ICE in Houston, said agents try to screen out as many violent criminals as possible to avoid preventable crimes.