Federal immigration officials in California say they are unable to take into custody criminal immigrants who were court-ordered released because of the pandemic but have violated those terms and been rearrested by local police.
More than 250 people of the 730 detainees at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center northeast of Los Angeles were ordered by U.S. District Judge for the Central District of California Terry Hatter in late October to be released. All 730 detainees are illegal immigrants, and 85% have criminal charges pending or have been convicted on criminal charges. The facility is one of dozens nationwide where immigrants who meet ICE criteria as a public safety threat are held while awaiting deportation proceedings to determine if they will be removed from the country.
ICE officials in California told the Washington Examiner that six detainees have been arrested on new charges by local law enforcement in central and Southern California since being released six weeks ago.
Police in nearby El Segundo, California, arrested a 34-year-old Mexican citizen for grand theft, burglary, carrying a loaded firearm, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia. Police in El Monte, California, arrested a 48-year-old Mexican man for battery, driving under the influence, and violation of a restraining order. A 60-year-old Indian national was arrested by Ventura, California, police on an outstanding warrant of felony lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14. Police in Placentia arrested a 31-year-old Guatemalan for shoplifting.
In November, Newport Beach police arrested a 56-year-old Mexican man for disorderly conduct under the influence of drugs and contempt of court. Glendora police arrested a 43-year-old Mexican national for possession of drug paraphernalia. Others released had criminal histories of assault with a deadly weapon, child cruelty, domestic violence, false imprisonment, fraud, hit and run, and other crimes.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was very clear that having its hands tied – not being able to process new intakes, an inability to transfer detainees to other detention facilities, and being forced to release egregious criminals from custody – would have a negative impact on the communities its officers are sworn to protect,” ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Los Angeles Field Office Director Dave Marin wrote in an email. “Now we see that this order has resulted in criminals being rearrested, not only for outstanding warrants, but for new crimes, which highlights our point regarding the recidivist nature of many egregious offenders.”
“This proves that many of these aliens are recidivist offenders who should not have been released in the first place,” ICE’s Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director Tony Pham said in a statement.
ICE did not reveal how it learned the six had been rearrested or if they are in local police custody. ICE historically has worked with police to transfer illegal immigrants arrested on nonimmigration crimes from local custody into federal custody. Over the past decade, however, California has passed laws to prevent local law enforcement from working with ICE.
ICE uses federal databases to learn when an illegal immigrant is arrested, but police in California will not transfer that person to ICE, forcing ICE to go out into the community and try to find them.
An ICE spokesman for the Los Angeles field office said the federal agency has not rearrested those who it knows have reoffended. The October court order blocked the federal facility from filling the privately run Adelanto detention center to its normal maximum capacity, as well as four other ICE facilities statewide. The spokesman said an immigration judge would have to decide if someone who is rearrested by ICE will be held in federal custody, which would be a challenge given the judge’s order prohibiting new detainees or the transfer of detainees to out-of-state ICE facilities.
Additionally, others have left the state or failed to report in to law enforcement about their whereabouts, which was part of release terms. ICE said an unspecified number of people released have attempted to remove tracking devices from their ankles.
“These absconders show a complete lack of regard for the legal system that authorized their release, and our immigration laws and policies,” Pham said.
ICE asked the judge for the ability to shift detainees to other locations nationwide but was denied.
“As the court’s order limits intakes and transfers at the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, we must continue to use other tools at our disposal to ensure public safety while enforcing the immigration laws enacted by Congress,” Marin added, noting the ankle monitors and other tracking devices.
ICE is a federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Since President Trump took office in 2017, some liberal lawmakers have called for the agency to be shuttered on the basis that the Trump administration has used it to go after immigrants.
