Posted on 10/10/2007 8:52:18 PM PDT by Tennessee Nana
Federal immigration officials said the name of a man arrested on felony child pornography charges and suspected of being an illegal immigrant did not trigger a hold order when Whitfield County Sheriff's officials notified them of his arrest.
"Whitfield County did the right thing," said Steve Peluso, an agent in the Dalton, Ga., office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Juan Carlos Ruiz-Pineda, 27, posted $25,000 bond through a Dalton bail agency and was released the weekend of his arrest Sept. 28.
Georgia law that took effect this year requires that federal authorities be notified of the arrest of people suspected of being illegal immigrants, who then may be ordered held without bond for possible deportation.
Mr. Ruiz-Pineda's release has drew fire from area lawmakers and prompted an internal investigation at the Whitfield County Sheriff's Department, officials said.
Sheriff Scott Chitwood said his people followed procedure, and ICE spokesman Mike Gilhooly confirmed the sheriff's department properly filed at least one electronic query through the Law Enforcement Support Center in Burlington, Vt.
He said Mr. Ruiz-Pineda's information did not match any federal Homeland Security records, which is why it was not requested for him to be detained.
"The man's name did not match any name in the more than 100 million names in our database," Mr. Gilhooly said. "There can be many reasons why there is a no-match, including aliases (and) including the fact the person could be a U.S. citizen."
ICE agents are assisting in a search forMr. Ruiz-Pineda, Agent Peluso said.
Sheriff's Department Lt. Wes Lynch said an internal probe showed that federal authorities were first contacted just after midnight on Saturday, Sept. 29 and no hold was requested. A magistrate set bail at $25,000 on Sept. 29, and Lt. Lynch said the suspect posted bond and was released about 1 a.m. Sept. 30.
"A copy of this log proved that we did make this notification, and that it was done over 24 hours before this inmate was released on bond," Lt. Lynch said in an e-mail.
"... Our agency had no choice but to release him because he had posted the bond required by the judge and no other agency had placed any holds or detainers on this suspect."
Sheriff Chitwood said his jail staff acted appropriately.
"We felt then, and still do now, that we abided by the law," he said.
Mr. Gilhooly said the release does not mean the Law Enforcement Support Center's system is flawed.
He said the center received 720,000 electronic queries from law enforcement agencies in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, and the number of queries has "grown steadily."
There were 665,000 inquiries the previous year, records show.
More than 20,000 people were detained last year based on information generated from the Law Enforcement Support Center, Mr. Gilhooly said.
Georgia law enforcement agencies submitted 18,400 queries to the Law Enforcement Center last fiscal year, resulting in 590 people being detained, Mr. Gilhooly said.
California leads the nation with 144,000 inquiries in 2006, records show.
"That's a significant amount of work," Mr. Gilhooly said.
The Law Enforcement Support Center is staffed around the clock by 250 workers, Mr. Gilhooly said. He said staffing is not an issue.
"We're handling the workload," Mr. Gilhooly said.
E-mail Ryan Harris at rharris@timesfreepress.com
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
but he wasnt a US citizen, and he could have been using an alias that was not in the database...Nobody is off the hook on this one guys...
At least I'm real glad they worked on this for more than 24 hours...Look how swell the AMNESTY Bill was suppose to work...
/s
PING
F**** incompetence. Heads need to start rolling.
So where is he now? Gone?
It is quite amazing is it not. We can bring someone a highresolution image from space even better than 1-meter resolution in order to prove that the crumpled up beer can in the tail-gate of your truck is of the Budwiser Brand. The City of London can and does record virtually every square inch of the city via video cam, but for some reason, we can’t seem to figure out if Mr. XYZ is actually Mr. XYZ...(shaking head)
I don’t think they care one iota!
They don’t WANT to know.
Here in Houston they wouldn’t fingerprint or arrest people that were likely illegally in the country. It does not pay to be a citizen in this country anymore.
” It does not pay to be a citizen in this country anymore.”
It sure doesn’t pay as WELL !!
Yoo-hoo Mr Gilhooly:
Did you ask to see the several SS cards he carries (Judge Judy ALWAYS does this)?
Did you ask to see the several credit cards he carries under different names (Judge Judy ALWAYS does this)?
Did you check how many times and in how many precincts he's registered to vote under different names?
Did you check all those bank accounts opened under different names to depoit his multiple welfare checks, UI, Workmen's Comp, SSI disability checks, and all those $3500 EITC refund checks?
Did you check Western Union and other money transfer outfits for the total monies he sends home each week?
bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.