The Montgomery County jail has turned over 325 suspected illegal immigrants to federal authorities so far this year, already a nearly 20 percent jump over all of 2008 when the detention center held 274 inmates on federal immigration warrants, jail director Arthur Wallenstein told The Examiner.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the jump is the result of more agents being assigned to work with Maryland jails as part of a nationwide push to capture illegal immigrants. Wallenstein said the jail has not changed its policies and continues to send a weekly list of inmates to ICE so the agency can check immigration records.
“We have assigned more agents and assets to coordinate with jails,” said ICE spokeswoman Gillian Brigham. “Specifically, Maryland has received more resources.”
In Montgomery County, she said, “we’ve become much more in synch with jail officials.”
Brigham could not immediately say why Maryland was targeted in the expansion.
She also said it’s possible that a change in Montgomery County police policies regarding illegal immigrants could be playing a role.
Last fall there was a string of high-profile crimes committed by illegal immigrants charged with violent crimes who were released before ICE could detain them. Among them was an illegal immigrant released from police custody just weeks before he fatally shot a 14-year-old on a county bus. Those crimes pushed County Executive Ike Leggett to require police to send the names of suspects charged with certain violent crimes to federal authorities. Federal agents then check those names against immigration databases.
The nationwide illegal immigrant crackdown has been part of the Obama administration’s approach since day one.
Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano reiterated that approach while speaking in El Paso, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexican border.
“Border security will not itself stop illegal entrants into our country,” Napolitano said. “Our border strategy must be combined with better enforcement of the immigration laws within the United States.”
