An Ounce of Prevention

ICE's Rocha defends the agency's performance. Though he won't respond to the specific complaints cited by Parrish and Johnson, he says, "There should be no delusions. ICE is working with local law enforcement every day, in every county. We do have limited resources, and we do have our focus on the worst offenders." As evidence, he notes that 1,700 criminal undocumented immigrants in Florida have been deported in the past year. Nationally, funding for criminal alien removal increased from $53 million in 2005 to $178 million in 2008, according to Rocha. And a new "Secure Communities" program focused on removing such individuals from jails and prisons received $200 million this year. Nevertheless, ICE estimates that to find and deport the country's 300,000 to 400,000 convicted criminal aliens would cost about $2 billion to $3 billion annually.

Some local sheriffs commend ICE's efforts. Judd in Polk County says that the agency has been picking up a growing number of illegal immigrants from his jail—156 this fiscal year, compared to 45 last year. "I find them cooperative," he says. In addition, he notes that ICE gets deluged with the names of possible undocumented immigrants from multiple law-enforcement offices. For instance, those 156 individuals picked up this year came from a pool of 4,455 reports his department sent to ICE. "They are just absolutely, totally overwhelmed. I don't fault ICE … ICE becomes the whipping post for failed national policy."

Still, given ICE's finite resources, many question how the agency is prioritizing them. After all, reports of ICE operations these days seem to center on workplace raids, like the one last month at a plant in Laurel, Miss., that resulted in the detention of nearly 600 immigrants. Such workers may have entered the country illegally, but the vast majority are otherwise law-abiding. "The fact of the matter is that ICE is focusing most of its efforts on immigrants with no criminal records whatsoever," says Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. "It's easier to round up large numbers of undocumented workers in factories and restaurants than checking on jails and removing criminals one by one." Nationwide ICE figures show that while noncriminal deportations increased from 138,739 in 2006 to 187,878 in 2007, criminal removals declined over the same period from 97,925 to 97,279.

There's one thing everyone can agree on: the federal government has shirked its duty to reform the immigration system. "The reason it's as bad as it is is because Congress has ignored it up to this point," says Judd. In the absence of federal action, the problem "is rolling down to us." Laundree, the sister of one of the Docks victims, doesn't single out any one agency for what happened to her loved one. Breakdowns in the immigration system are "everywhere and long-standing," she says. "There are so many failures, I'm not sure which one to pick as the worst."

Letter to the Editor:
I am the ICE spokesperson quoted in the September 16th Newsweek article titled, "An Ounce of Prevention." This story, based upon the circumstances of a tragic situation in Florida, lacked context in a couple of critical areas. Newsweek readers should know that the men and women of ICE are working diligently every day to enforce the immigration and customs laws of our nation, and they are doing it more effectively than ever before. At ICE, one of our top priorities is the identification and removal of criminal aliens who pose a threat to our communities.

With regard to the case involving Rigoberto Martinez, I want to make it clear that the only request for information received from the St. Petersburg Police Department came in the form of an electronic query on August 5th. Despite any claims to the contrary, this inquiry did not indicate that Martinez was suspected of any serious, violent offenses. It simply stated that he was suspected of being in the country illegally. In direct contradiction to assertions contained in this article, there are no other records from the St. Petersburg PD requesting information on Martinez—either by phone or through electronic means.

While it is not our policy to speculate on the outcome of a case, I can tell you that ICE officials work with local law enforcement agencies every day across the country in support of public safety. In many cases, when a police department contacts our local agents and officers and explains the gravity of an ongoing investigation, we routinely engage in the investigation and lend our unique immigration authority to help keep the suspected, dangerous criminal off the street.

In addition to the concerns we have regarding the facts of the Martinez case, the article made two unsubstantiated editorial statements that must be addressed. The authors purport twice that ICE priorities are honed on worksite enforcement—and lack a focus on criminal aliens. The article is wrong and the facts are clear in this regard.

ICE employs a multi-faceted immigration enforcement strategy which includes targeting criminal aliens in prisons and jails; identifying, arresting and removing fugitive aliens; targeting illegal employment through worksite investigations and dismantling the infrastructure that supports illegal immigration which includes targeting document vendors and those who engage in identity theft.

And the numbers speak for themselves. So far in FY2008, ICE has identified and charged for removal more than 200,000 criminal aliens in prisons and jails. Additionally, ICE trained officers (287g) from local law enforcement agencies have identified and charged approximately 40,000 individuals and our fugitive operations teams have arrested more than 30,000 immigration violators. In worksite enforcement cases this year, ICE has made more than 5,700 total arrests so far (including just over 4,700 administrative and more than 1,000 criminal arrests).