toadie800's Blog

AUSTIN -- Gov. Rick Perry demanded Tuesday that the federal government take steps to help state and local officials ensure that unauthorized immigrants who commit crimes in Texas remain in custody until they are deported.

In a strongly worded letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, Perry said he was ``outraged'' to learn that many convicted immigrants in Texas jails were released after they completed their jail sentences instead of being deported.

``Texas has spent the last four years investing unprecedented amounts of state resources to secure our border with Mexico. To now learn that criminal aliens who have been jailed are being released back into our communities by federal authorities who have neglected to secure our border is infuriating and unconscionable,'' he said.

Spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor was reacting, in part, to a series of stories in the Houston Chronicle, reporting how federal immigration officials have allowed scores of violent criminals to be freed despite the inmates' admission to jailers that they were in the United States illegally.

``We knew there was a problem, but we didn't know the scope and magnitude of it,'' Castle said. In his letter, Perry noted that some of the released immigrants were later charged with felonies, including capital murder, rape, robbery and child molestation.

Several, he said, were ``members of transnational gangs that work closely with the cartels in Mexico conducting criminal operations on both sides of the Texas/Mexico border.''

The governor asked Chertoff to ``immediately institute a policy that requires every criminal alien identified in a Texas jail to be detained after their sentence has been served and then immediately deported to their country of origin.''

Otherwise, he added, ``the federal government will be embracing a de facto 'catch and release' program that has already resulted in tragic consequences in our communities.''

Perry also asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to share its criminal database with all Texas counties that have a jail with an electronic fingerprint booking capacity. At present, Castle said, the database is available only to Harris and Dallas counties.

On Monday, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called for an investigation into how immigration officials screen inmates in the Harris County jail.

The Chronicle examined arrest and immigration records for 3,500 inmates who told Harris County jailers that they were in the country illegally during a span of eight months beginning in June 2007.

In 177 cases reviewed by the newspaper, inmates who were released after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes, including felonies.

The Chronicle also found at least 178 cases involving suspects who absconded, meaning their bails were revoked for missing court dates or allegedly committing more crimes.

ICE has criticized the stories for containing ``outdated information.'' A spokesman said the agency has made significant improvements, including giving Harris County jailers access to a database that automatically checks suspects' immigration history.