Federal immigration officials allowed scores of violent criminals — some ordered deported decades ago — to walk away from Harris County Jail despite the inmates' admission to local authorities that they were in the country illegally, a Houston Chronicle investigation found.

A review of thousands of criminal and immigration records shows that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials didn't file the paperwork to detain roughly 75 percent of the more than 3,500 inmates who told jailers during the booking process that they were in the U.S. illegally.

Although most of the inmates released from custody were accused of minor crimes, hundreds of convicted felons — including child molesters, rapists and drug dealers — also managed to avoid deportation after serving time in Harris County's jails, according to the Chronicle review, which was based on documents filed over a period of eight months starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration records available.

Other key findings in the investigation include:

•In 177 cases reviewed by the Chronicle, inmates who were released from jail after admitting to being in the country illegally later were charged with additional crimes. More than half of those charges were felonies, including aggravated sexual assault of a child and capital murder.
•About 11 percent of the 3,500 inmates in the review had three or more prior convictions in Harris County. Many had repeatedly cycled through the system despite a history of violence and, in some cases, outstanding deportation orders.
The investigation found that the federal government's system to identify and deport illegal immigrants in Harris County Jail is overwhelmed and understaffed. Gaps in the system have allowed some convicted criminals to avoid detection by immigration officials despite being previously deported. The problems are national in scope, fueled by a shortage of money and manpower.

In reaction to the Chronicle's findings, U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, said ICE needs more resources to target immigrants convicted of crimes.

"There's no question about it," Poe said. "Criminals from foreign countries who get caught after committing a crime and prosecuted should go to the top of the list of people we deport."

ICE removed 107,000 convicted criminals from the U.S. in the 2008 fiscal year, which ended in September. But during the same time frame, ICE sent home more than two times as many illegal immigrants without criminal records, prompting criticism from some members of Congress.

the rest is here

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/6115223.html

This is not new news.

The local authorities have been failing to detain and file paperwork to deport for a long time all over the country.

Send them all home!

did you see some of the crimes? and repeat offenders like child molestation and rape? and no one thought it might be a good idea to deport any of these people?

Yes.

It has been going on all along.

Local authorities did not want to do the work that it requires for deportation so they let them go instead. Less paperwork and detention time and trouble.

Nope, Obama wants their votes.

They all do, which is why McCain is known as "Lettuce McStain" by many in Phoenix. (this is from a famous speech he did holding a piece of lettuce and applauding illegal aliens and so forth)

That's a lie.

what is?

Since they can't vote, voting is not the issue at all.

The federal immigration laws have not been enforced for as long as I can remember.

Local authorities do not want to do the work so they let them go.

It has been a problem all along.

One reason I have always said "if our immigration laws were enforced and our border protected we wouldn't have the problem we have today."

Employers employing illegals was the reason they came here so we needed to end that. Not been done yet.

I will never stand for Nazi style roundups and inhumane treatment of an humans but our laws are our laws and we should be enforcing them or we need to change them so they can be enforced at the national level.

This catch 22 that we have going on with illegals puts them in danger and makes them our slave work force which we already went to war about proving it was wrong.

It needs to be fixed.

Not with the racially biased Arizona law though, that is not cool either.

no one ever said anything about a nazi style roundup... this is exactly what i have been saying all along. they actually deported more non-criminals then the ones they had in jail. they didn't do a nazi round up on these slimes, they caught them just like Arizona wants to do.

Arizona wants to make racial profiling legal and that is not right. Along with other things in the law that aren't right.

Local authorities have not wanted to do this part of the job and that is why they just let them go.

And that, I guess, is a 'good' thing 'cuz it's not 'RAYciss!', hmm ... ?

The McCain post.

I guess the Federal Government is racist too since the Arizonba Law mirrors the Federal law just on a state level.

Prove it.

I know for a fact it doesn't.

Using unverified rhetoric is not a good deal.

Nevermind, that is off topic. Sorry Moe.

Local authorities have failed to detain and file federal paperwork on illegals for as long as I have been aware of the illegal situation.

Local authorities feel over worked and resent having to process the illegals.

The failure of enforcing our immigration laws has long been a local issue.