{"id":24894,"date":"2021-08-13T13:49:53","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T17:49:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=24894"},"modified":"2021-08-13T13:49:55","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T17:49:55","slug":"texas-enforcement-policy-at-stake-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/08\/13\/texas-enforcement-policy-at-stake-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolving Door Spins for Criminal Aliens at Texas Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Three weeks after a Texas prison began housing illegal aliens charged with state crimes, the first \u201cconfinees\u201d<\/a> have already served their time. What U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does with them will determine whether Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s stepped-up law enforcement program is an effective deterrent, or just another version of catch and release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pleading guilty to criminal\ntrespassing, nine Venezuelan migrants were released for time served (15 days).\nICE officers escorted them out of jail on Thursday, but the agency has not said\nwhat will happen next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[ICE] could just release them and ask them to report at a\nlater date in whatever city they\u2019re going to live, or they could send them to\ndetention,” said attorney Kat Russell. Either way, deportation may be a long\nshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though criminal convictions\ncan lead to removal, asylum claims, likely in the Venezuelans\u2019 case, can be a\nget-out-of-jail-free card under the Biden administration\u2019s constantly evolving interpretations\nof immigration law. The\never-helpful American Civil Liberties Union has opined that arresting migrants\non local and state charges could interfere with the constitutional right to\nseek asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brent\nSmith, prosecutor in Kinney County, a border county in the heavily trafficked\nDel Rio sector, says 15-day sentences won\u2019t deter criminally minded illegal\naliens. \u201cThat\u2019s only slowing down the revolving door. It\u2019s not stopping it,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under border emergencies declared by two-dozen South Texas counties, state and local law enforcement officers can arrest migrants for offenses such as trespassing and criminal mischief, with sentences upgraded<\/a> to a year in jail. Abbott said Texas would not be complicit in the Biden administration\u2019s \u201ccatch and release\u201d policy, and vowed that offenders would do serious time behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\ndespite 1,000 additional state police dispatched to the border \u2013 along with\nhundreds of National Guardsmen on loan from other states \u2013 actual arrests have\nbeen few and jail terms have been minimal. Three weeks after 1,000 beds were\ndesignated for illegal aliens at Briscoe detention center in Dilley, only 235\nwere occupied on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To its credit, Texas is at least attempting to do something<\/em> while the Biden administration does little or nothing to secure the border. But migrant activists are overly dramatic in claiming that \u201cthe system is being weaponized against asylum seekers.\u201d Judging by the rapid release of the Venezuela Nine, and the 765 empty bunks at Dilley, the governor\u2019s latest enforcement weapon doesn\u2019t have much ammo. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three weeks after a Texas prison began housing illegal aliens charged with state crimes, the first \u201cconfinees\u201d have already served their time. What U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) does with them will determine whether Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s stepped-up law enforcement program is an effective deterrent, or just another version of catch and release. Pleading<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":14081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[14],"tags":[11112,520,1524,105],"yst_prominent_words":[2019,2530,5406,2043,8908,1922,2118,1995,2013,2008,2912,2030,2159,2188,4182,2373,2167,9305,2318,11536],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24895,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24894\/revisions\/24895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24894"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=24894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}