Posted on 06/03/2005 8:13:09 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
Recio: Undocumented immigrants will not be set free in Brownsville
— Jorge Enrique Vasquez Carrasco didn’t expect jail time or to be deported when he got caught illegally entering the United States.
The 18-year-old Honduran man expected the same treatment as thousands of other undocumented immigrants who have been set free after receiving a notice to appear in court.
According to federal figures, almost 88 percent of immigrants who receive those notices never appear in court and stay illegally in the United States.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio made a statement Thursday to Vasquez and six other Central Americans who were caught this week crossing the Rio Grande near Brownsville.
“I want you to tell all your friends in Honduras that if they come through Brownsville, Texas, they will not be paroled into the system and they will be put in jail and deported,” Recio told Vasquez in open court as he handed him a jail sentence that could keep him here until space opens at an immigration facility and he could be deported.
Vasquez and six others in his group pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor illegal entry charge.
Recio declined an interview, but federal officials said the immigrants will be held in a Cameron County jail until bed space could be found for them at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center near Bayview.
Although the federal facility is reported to be near its 850-bed capacity, ICE spokeswoman Letty Zamarripa said her agency is bound to carry out the federal judge’s sentence and relies on contracts with county jails to do so.
“There is not a limit on how long a federal prisoner can stay in a county facility,” she said.
According to the latest figures, there are at least 325 federal prisoners in Cameron County jails, including undocumented immigrants waiting to be transferred or deported.
Zamarripa said criminals and detainees from “nations of interest” such as those that support terrorism are give priority when moved from county jails to federal facilities.
“We are removing detainees everyday,” Zamarripa said of immigrants being deported from the Bayview facility. “We have two flights a week with room for 120 on each flight in addition to two buses leaving each week.”
Although there are no plans to expand the Bayview facility, Zamarripa said a 1,020-bed contract facility is expected to open in June near Pearsall, which could receive undocumented Central American and Brazilian immigrants caught in the Rio Grande Valley.
Nathan Selzer with the Valley Movement for Human Rights said undocumented immigrants are being put in danger while committing a non-violent and victimless crime and then being put in the same jails as “real” criminals.
Selzer said the situation would be most easily addressed through reform of the United States’ immigration policy.
“But that’s in the hands of President Bush and Congress and they refuse to do so,” Selzer said.
schapa@brownsvilleherald.com
sw
? OUTSTANDING! we need more Judges like Recio. Now, let's send all of his friends in Mexico doing the exact same, the same message!
Soooo, if I've got this right, if the US would just stop being mean and having laws about entering into our country, everyone could just get along????
Seems we aren't playing mean enough. If the choice was cross and be shot or don't cross and live and apply to enter the country legally perhaps more would learn to fill out the dang forms and stop stealing wages and opprotunities from those who did follow the legal route.
Somehow I don't think that's the reform he is wanting.
I like your meter.
It's been used here before...
:^)
Awesome !
If Uncle Sugar doesn't handle it at the border then Auntie Winchester will handle it at the porch........
ROTFL! That's good. We could do one of those all day telethons where you people could call in and pledge miles to get the ILLEGAL aliens back home. LOL!
The dirty little secret of illegal border jumping is that the United States doesn't have it's act together enough to charter busses, airplanes, ships to send these Central Americans home. Mexico is an easy bus ride for the INS, an easy deportation. Beyond Mexico the INS/Border Patrol is an abject failure at sending people back to where they came from.
I would gladly give up ALL my miles!
ANOTHER real man not afraid to enforce the law. Bush, are you paying attention?
Bumpus Maximus!
Here's where the bill for the storage and deportation of these illegals ought to be sent.
There and the Mex government. The only way we're going to stop this is by increasing the pain for the mex govt that encourages it.
Blood-sucking parasites, thats all they are. And as long as they're sucking the life-blood out of the US economy and sending billions back to Mexico, there's no reason in the world for them to work to improve their own economy.
PTL and pass the ammunition!
Can anyone find an e-mail or postal address for him?
Rumor has it Rheinquist is leaving in 4-5 weeks. Can we PLEASE nominate this judge for his spot, since apparently Clarance Thomas and Antonin Scalia don't seem to want it?
Paul
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
The illegal invasion of the U.S.A. should be a felony
You'll have to cut and paste.
ol' hoghead
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