The Illinois Sheriffs’ Association said this week 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.

Sheriffs Mike Downey of Kankakee County and Tony Childress of Livingston County, representing the statewide law enforcement group, told reporters at the state Capitol that they were not given a reason for the policy switch, which Downey said is akin to giving the ex-inmates a “head start to evade federal law.”

State Representative Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) called it “shocking” to find out what is taking place and that the Governor is putting citizens of the state at serious risk.  

Downey said Corrections officials announced late last month that they were canceling a process under which criminals living in the country illegally 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 the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.