20 illegals found in van: ICE says, "Let them all go".

[Little-Acorn]

This story is missing the name and rank of the ICE official who directed the sheriff to let them go. That would have made a complete - and useful - news story.

We don't have to "reform" our immigration laws. The ones we have now are fine - but we don't obey them. The "reform" we need, is to start finding out which officials are not obeying them, and replace them with officials who will.

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http://www.wtov9.com/news/9397913/detail.html

Illegal Immigrants Free To Go

by Renee Cardelli & Amy Post, NEWS9

Local police said they intercepted 20 illegal Mexican immigrants, but were ordered by immigration officials to let them go free.

Belmont County Sheriff Fred Thompson said his officers were instructed by federal immigration services to let all 20 illegal immigrants go free, and said his department has no choice but to follow the orders from immigration officials.

Thompson said officers stopped a van at 3 a.m. Tuesday which was traveling the wrong direction on Interstate 470 in St. Clairsville.

The officer discovered 20 illegal Mexican immigrants inside the van, including three who were previously deported. The officer immediately contacted immigration officials, who told him to let all 20 immigrants go.

"Once we find out they are illegals, it's like pat them on the back of the head and tell them, 'Go on down the road; you'll probably get stopped again,'" Thompson said.

The immigrants told the officer they were traveling through Ohio to obtain work in Manassas, Va.

Calls to Citizenship and Immigration Services as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not been returned.

 

[Annie]

This story is missing the name and rank of the ICE official who directed the sheriff to let them go. That would have made a complete - and useful - news story.

We don't have to "reform" our immigration laws. The ones we have now are fine - but we don't obey them. The "reform" we need, is to start finding out which officials are not obeying them, and replace them with officials who will.

---------------------------

http://www.wtov9.com/news/9397913/detail.html

Illegal Immigrants Free To Go

by Renee Cardelli & Amy Post, NEWS9

Local police said they intercepted 20 illegal Mexican immigrants, but were ordered by immigration officials to let them go free.

Belmont County Sheriff Fred Thompson said his officers were instructed by federal immigration services to let all 20 illegal immigrants go free, and said his department has no choice but to follow the orders from immigration officials.

Thompson said officers stopped a van at 3 a.m. Tuesday which was traveling the wrong direction on Interstate 470 in St. Clairsville.

The officer discovered 20 illegal Mexican immigrants inside the van, including three who were previously deported. The officer immediately contacted immigration officials, who told him to let all 20 immigrants go.

"Once we find out they are illegals, it's like pat them on the back of the head and tell them, 'Go on down the road; you'll probably get stopped again,'" Thompson said.

The immigrants told the officer they were traveling through Ohio to obtain work in Manassas, Va.

Calls to Citizenship and Immigration Services as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement have not been returned.

Here's a bit more:
http://www.theintelligencer.net/News/articles.asp?articleID=7479

Arrest Nets 20 Illegals

By MICHELLE BLUM

Nearly 20 Mexican nationals, who were in the U.S. illegally, were detained for a time early Tuesday morning by Belmont County Sheriff’s deputies but were then released.

Belmont County Sheriff Fred Thompson said the Mexicans, including a juvenile, were detained following a traffic stop on Interstate 470 eastbound. However, he could not say why the van in which they were traveling was stopped.

The incident comes less than a week after Ohio County Sheriff Tom Burgoyne announced 80 illegal aliens had been taken into custody in his county since May 2005.

Burgoyne, a strong opponent of the release policies of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, is usually successful in getting ICE agents from the agency’s Pittsburgh office to take custody of the illegal aliens arrested in the West Virginia county.

“ICE was probably glad they didn’t make it to the West Virginia border,” Burgoyne said Tuesday, noting he certainly understands the problem facing Thompson. “He has to expect the federal government to pay the jail bill. That’s what we do.”

According to Thompson, a deputy told him three of the aliens arrested near milepost 5 of I-470 were previously deported but had returned to the United States.

The group was traveling to Manassas, Va., but Thompson could not say from where they were coming.

“It’s my understanding they had Illinois temporary plates on the van,” he said.

Thompson did not know how deputies learned the van occupants, all males, were in the U.S. illegally.

Deputies contacted immigration officials, who told them to release the illegal aliens, Thompson said.

“What could we do? We don’t have the facilities to hold 20 illegal aliens,” Thompson said. “Basically, it’s a Catch-22 situation. Even if we wanted to keep them, we wouldn’t be able to.”

Meanwhile, Hazleton, Pa., City Council last week tentatively approved a measure that would revoke the business licenses of companies that employ illegal immigrants, impose $1,000 fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and make English the official language of the city.

Hazleton is located in eastern Pennsylvania on Interstate 80, a major highway through the eastern U.S.

U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, expressed “outrage” over what he called the continued failure of the Immigration and Custom Enforcement Agency to enforce federal immigration laws.

He said the Belmont County incident follows a similar situation in Ross County, Ohio, in which four illegal aliens were detained but were ordered released by immigration officials.

“Clearly, in both Belmont and Ross counties, our local police are doing their job and working to enforce our laws. The federal government is not,” Ney commented.

Ney said after the Ross County incident, he spoke with a top immigration agency official and was “assured our laws would be enforced. Clearly, however, that is not the case. Federal immigration officials have turned their back on local police departments in Ohio. That is outrageous and unacceptable.”

The matters further highlight the importance of the U.S. Senate approving the House-passed immigration bill, he said.

The House bill focuses on border protection and the rule of law first, “which is precisely where our attention needs to be and not on a guest work/amnesty program, which I definitely refuse to support,” he said.

“In the meantime, I will be contacting (ICE) yet again to ask why this administration is still refusing to enforce our federal immigration laws,” Ney said.