The Illinois Sheriffs’ Association said Tuesday that some violent felons who had faced deportation are instead being released into local communities after their prison terms end as a result of a policy change by Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s administration.
State Senator Chapin Rose chimed in on the situation Wednesday saying these aren't people that are not eligible for deportation, they are people that should be deported.
In the past, there was a handoff of these offenders to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials but now Sen. Rose is outraged because these people could be walking the streets of Illinois communities.
Sheriff Mike Downey of Kankakee County said Corrections officials announced late last month that they were canceling a process under which criminals living in the country illegally, their sentences expired, were transferred to Pontiac Correctional Center. That’s where, since October 2016, Kankakee County sheriff’s deputies picked them up and detained them under contract with ICE.
Of 223 immigrants transferred from Pontiac to ICE detention in 2019, Downey said 11 were convicted of murder or attempted murder, more than four dozen of predatory criminal sexual assault or abuse, including crimes involving children, and 33 were convicted of a crime involving a weapon.
Robert Guadian, director of the Chicago field office for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, said in a statement that Illinois “put politics ahead of public safety” when it severed communication between Corrections and ICE. He put the average total of affected inmates higher.
