Jail board wants to know why ICE slow in picking up inmates (The DC Examiner

Jail board wants to know why ICE slow in picking up inmates Mar 14, 2008 4:00 AM (6 hrs ago) by Dan Genz, The Examiner
WASHINGTON - The Prince William County jail board is preparing to send federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement a letter questioning why the agency is taking so long to remove illegal immigrants from the overcrowded Manassas facility.
The formal agreement between the county and ICE approved last summer says federal agents will pick up detainees in less than three days. However, inmates are often left waiting two to three weeks for agents to arrive, Col. Peter Meletis told the Prince William County Board of Supervisors this week.
The delays are contributing to the record overcrowding problems at the Manassas jail, where more than 300 inmates now must be held in other Virginia jails. The space concerns have resulted in unexpected costs and transportation issues related to housing inmates in a collection of different facilities.
They continue to be two to three weeks behind in picking our inmates up,” Meletis said. “We are drafting a letter from the jail board attorney to seek better compliance with the [memorandum of agreement].”
ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said he would delay commenting until his agency receives the letter. The jail board is set to vote on sending the letter at its meeting Wednesday.
While ICE attempts to collect all detainees within two days, it will compensate a local jail for holding the inmates if it is unable to respond faster, Rocha said.
The delays are partly due to the unexpected scope of deporting illegal immigrants from the jail serving Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Supervisors originally anticipated a maximum of 40 inmates per month, but instead, the jail placed detainers on 625 illegal immigrant inmates in less than nine months.
“If we keep on this pace, for our first year, we’ll be a little over 1,000,” Meletis said.
A total of 313 were turned over to ICE between July and March 4, another 71 are awaiting collection from ICE, and 240 more are being held in the jail pending completion of sentences or trial.
Of those turned over to ICE, 273 come from four Latin American countries: 110 from El Salvador; 82 from Mexico; 51 from Honduras; and 30 from Guatemala.
dgenz@dcexaminer.com