CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (
MyFoxBoston.com) -- In the country illegally, convicted of a crime, then released and able to do it all over again.
Federal immigration agents say it's happening in Massachusetts and they're powerless to stop it.
FOX25's Justin Gray goes on the road with immigration agents to investigate how a change in federal policy is impacting who walks out of jails across New England.
We went along with immigration and customs agents as they tracked down three fugitive immigrants living in the United States convicted of serious crimes. These men will head before an immigration judge and likely be deported.
Agents say limited resources mean they're very particular about who they go after.
“Right now, we're focusing on the criminals,” one agent said.
But many question that. Cambridge city councilman Dennis Carlone says more than just criminals were being nabbed in Massachusetts.
“To be honest, I think in many ways it was a broad lynching,” Carlone said.
For years, immigration and customs enforcement, or ICE, has relied on something called secure communities rather than these expensive time consuming raids. Inmates at jails across the country are screened for their immigration status and ICE then requests local jails hold some inmates until ICE agents pick them up.
But a measure sponsored by Carlone in Cambridge, a similar one by city councilor Josh Zakim in Boston, and many more nationwide told the federal government the cities would no longer cooperate. Some judges have ruled the detentions unconstitutional.
“We were hearing about victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence other crimes that were afraid to come forward,” said Zakim.
One ICE official believes otherwise.
“By not honoring the detainers, those people are going back out into the community you're seeing that they're committing more crimes,” an ICE spokesman said.
With a growing list of cities like Boston, Cambridge and Somerville refusing to hold immigrants, Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson issued a memo that ended the secure communities program.
“Nobody's against getting rid of terrorists or gang members who are illegally here, but good hardworking folks, that's America,” Carlone said.
The new memo puts immigrants into categories. Those who have committed the most serious crimes are targeted for deportation. Others are lower priority.
Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson tells me the new policy leaves gaps.
He built a special facility just to house undocumented immigrant inmates and says he's had to release men and women he considers dangerous.
“To knowingly allow somebody to go out whose got a much higher risk of targeting and victimizing someone else, some innocent person, is as bad as it gets for law enforcement,” Hodgson said.
On a typical day a year ago every single one of these bunks at Hodgson's facility would have been full. The facility averaged more than 220 detainees a day. Now, the facility holds less than a third of that number.
The current policy, all based on a two-page memo from Homeland Security, is temporary. Homeland Security is now developing a system to permanently replace it.
