As this story from Tampa Bay Online shows, catch and release is alive and well in Central Florida.

The immigration agent didn’t like the looks of Manuel Pardo’s Social Security card. When the 20-year-old from Mexico was questioned, he admitted it was fake.

Pardo and several other immigrants were picked up at a brothel in Dover that night in June 2003, a Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office report shows. Five months earlier, Pardo tried to attack some people with a shovel and was charged with aggravated assault. He served 24 days in county jail.

After Pardo was picked up at the brothel, the federal immigration agent ordered him to remain in Orient Road Jail until he could be transferred for deportation proceedings.

Federal officials said Pardo was deported, but three weeks ago he was back in the county jail, charged with driving without a valid license. Although it is a felony to return to the United States after deportation, he was released on $500 bail.

He walked out nine hours after he was picked up.

There’s so much in this article that you should read the whole thing. The words of border patrol agents are not encouraging.

“It’s very discouraging,” Bonner said [J.T. Bonner, President of the agents' union, the National Border Patrol Council. Jim]. “These aren’t the people that most people envision when they think of the hardworking alien. A lot of them are very hard-core criminals.”

More than 300,000 inmates next year will be what the report calls deportable immigrants. These are undocumented immigrants, such as Pardo, or immigrants with green cards who lost the right to remain in the United States because of their crimes.

[...]

The report also said immigrants with past convictions often are released after an arrest. From 2001 through 2004, nearly 30,000 immigrants with criminal records were picked up in the prisons, traffic checkpoints or other immigration checks, and then let go.

“Whether they were released because of a lack of detention bed space or for some other reason could not be determined because such information is not tracked,” the report stated. “What is known, however, is that the number of criminal aliens being apprehended and released has increased sharply.” [My emphasis. Jim]

So, Catch and Release remains a problem. A very real problem that must be addressed. At the state level it’s a bit better.

State prison officials say they work closely with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. They tell ICE when someone born outside the country enters prison. When the inmate approaches release, they check to see whether ICE wants the inmate held for a transfer to federal custody.

To help with the screening, ICE has agents in two of the three facilities where inmates are processed before starting their sentences.

State corrections officials say that over the past two years, ICE chose to detain 1,781 inmates from Florida’s prisons. A federal database used to reimburse states for incarcerating immigrants shows that about 10,000 Florida inmates were classified as “criminal aliens.”

It is at the lower levels where it becomes a problem. Lack of manpower and funding allow many to be released unchecked.

At the county level, federal agents rely on the local jails to let them know whether an inmate is a candidate for deportation, ICE spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said.

In addition to offering training to local law enforcement agencies, ICE maintains a database of immigrants considered to be deportable because of criminal records. It expects local jails to check it when they book someone who was born outside the United States, though they’re not required to do so.

Hillsborough doesn’t. Instead, it gives ICE access to its jail logs, sheriff’s Col. David Parrish said. “They can see everyone who comes in, so it’s up to them. If they want to put a hold on someone, it’s up to them.”

If Hillsborough officers had checked the federal database the day Pardo was arrested, they would have seen his deportation order.

This isn’t a criticism of local law enforcement. As I stated earlier, there isn’t always the personnel, money, or space to do the job. Also, a response from ICE isn’t always forthcoming.

In Pasco and Pinellas counties, jail officials say they run the names of foreign-born inmates through the ICE database and notify the agency when they see a match.

“Sometimes ICE picks them up, sometimes they don’t,” Pinellas sheriff’s spokesman Mac McMullen said.

Other than the terrorism threat, this is the most dangerous and disturbing aspect of the illegal immigration problem. Issues such as economic concerns, jobs, and the myriad of other issues can be addressed over time. But these concerns, ones that directly impact the safety and security of the American people, must be corrected.

Now.

**This was a production of The Coalition Against Illegal Immigration (CAII). If you would like to participate, please go to the above link to learn more. Afterwards, email the coalition and let us know at what level you would like to participate.