June 13, 2006 3:44 PM

John Accola and Burt Hubbard on The Border Within

Burt, immigrants who are here illegally and commit crimes are supposed to get deported. Our investigation found that's not always the case?
Burt_Hubbard(A) yes, that is correct. In some cases, they served their jail terms and were released without any action by immigration officials. In other cases, there may not have been enough federal detention space to house them after they were done with their jail terms.

Mark(Q) Weld County's District Attorney studied that county's jail population. What did he find?
Burt_Hubbard(A) He looked at all of the people in the Weld county jail on one particular day last year who had holds or detainers placed on them by immigration agents. That means that after they had served their terms in the county jail, they are slated to be turned over to immigration for deportation or other action. However, he found that three quarter or 25 inmates had previously been in Weld County jail for other crimes - meaning that they had either escaped immigration's attention in prior years or had been deported and returned to the county.

Mark(Q) What about nationally? Criminal immigrants have been arrested an average of eight times without being deported? How does that happen?
Burt_Hubbard(A) It could happen several different ways. When the immigrants were arrested, nobody from local law enforcement contacted immigration offiicials so they served their term in jail and were released. Or local law enforcement contacted immigration and immigration had nobody to send out to the jail to see if the arrestee was in the U.S. illegally. Or immigration determined the arrestee was here illegally, but when he or she finished the jail term, immigraiton had no jail space to hold them. The fact that it happened on average 8 times, shows the holes in the system.

Mark(Q) What's the situation in Colorado? Do we know how many criminal immigrants should have been deported and weren't?
Burt_Hubbard(A) We do not know definitely. We took a look at the inmates in Colorado prisons last year who are not u.s. citizens and found that about 10 percent had enough prior crimes that they probably should have been deported before they commited the crime that eventually sent them to prison. A federal study looked at 55,000 prison inmates who were not u.s. citizens and found they had on average 8 prior arrrests each. About 1,000 of those were from Colorado.

Mark(Q) After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the ICE agent assigned to screen incoming inmates was reassigned?
Burt_Hubbard(A) Yes, Colorado department of corrections officials told us that ICE used to have one agent assigned to the diagnositc center were inmates are screened before they are sent to prison. That agent would designate which ones were slated for deportation after they served their prison terms. After 9/11, that agent was reassigned. Now, the prison system calls ICE before a foreign born inmate is released to make sure agents interview him or her to see if deportation is warranted.

Mark(Q) How many resources does Immigration and Customs Enforcement allocate to this situation of criminal illegals and deportation issues?
Burt_Hubbard(A) They won't tell us how many agents they have in the Colorado region, citing security concerns. However a study by a Syracuse University-based group in 2004 estimated that there were 50 agents in the Colorado region for all investigations. That's pretty low.

Mark(Q) John, your story today was about a 12-year-old boy who fought for four years to stay in the country with his mother, who is here legally. How did the kid wind up with a booking photo at age 8?
John_Accola(A) That was the "alien number" assigned to Jonathan when he was taken into custody four years ago. Anyone tagged for deportaton is given a number for tracking purposes, similar to a case file in criminal and civil court.

Mark(Q) What were the circumstances of his arrest?
John_Accola(A) He was picked up by the Border Patrol with his hired smuggler at a border crossing in California. According to the Border Patrol's report, the smuggler had another young passenger. For both minors, the papers they carried didn't match who they said they were. Both passengers were then designated "unaccompanied minors" - a term given to foreign children who cross the U.S. border illegally without a parent or legal guardian.

Mark(Q) John, this seems like a case that cries out for sympathy, especially since the mom is here legally. Why did it take so long to resolve?
John_Accola(A) The answer varies, depending who you talk to at Immigration and Customers Enforcement, which provided the goverment trial attorneys to prosecute the case, Privately, several government attorneys told me they reluctantly pressed for deportation because that is their mission. Also, there was a revolving door of government attorneys assigned to the case, and eadh one had to become familiar with the case, in essence starting over each time. A backlog of cases allowed several years for the case to reach a full blown merit hearing, where a judge can listen to both sides adn determine how to proceed based on the evidence heard in his courtroom.

Mark(Q) How did Ken Salazar get involved?
John_Accola(A) As the deadline approached for the boy's final hearing, Jonathan's mother, who cleans the offices of a TV statiion in Denver, was befriended by a news anchor woman who knew one of Sen. Salazar's top aides. Upon learning of Jonathan's predicament, the aide contacted the chief counsel of Immigration and Customs Ehnforcement in Denver. Once chief counsel Corina Almeida initiated her own inquiry, it became obvious this was an appropriate case for prosecutorial discretion. Almeida insists the fact that Salazar is a senator had nothing to do with her decision.His office merely brought the case to her attention and she says that allowed her to take action,

Mark(P) What's his mother's circumstance? How did the family get separated?
John_Accola(P) She came over year before - her decisiion, based on a friend here who said there was work available and generous wages. In El Salvador, Jonathan's father was killed by road bandits, leaving his mother the sole breadwinner. Her job peeling shrimp, she said, couldnt provide a living wage but she said a job in America would allow her to send money back home to support Jonathan and his older brother. Although Jonathan's mother entered the U.S. illegally, she was able to apply for a special visa for Salvadoran immigrants who need extraordinary relief because of an earthquake that has devastated that countries economy and infrastructure.

Mark(P) How did the case finally get resolved? What's Jonathan's status at the moment?
John_Accola(P) He's still in legal limbo, because he has no changed status permitting him to live here legally. But since the deportation case has been administratively closed, ICE will no longer prosecute. Jonathan's lawyer said that enables him to apply to the Citizenship and Immigration Service for a "humanitarian waiver" While its no sure thing the waiver will be granted, Jonathan can remain in the U.S. like thousands of other non-citizen children of illegal immigrants.