ICE detainee accidentally let go from a Texas jail. Cops say they can’t go after him
An inmate being held in a Texas jail by Immigration and Customs Enforcement was “inadvertently” released Tuesday morning, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
But what might strike the lay person as more bizarre is that Salazar said in a statement released to McClatchy that now that he’s out, local police can’t do anything about it.
Ricardo Mujica was walked out of the Bexar County Jail along with other inmates who were to be freed, around 7 a.m., according to the San Antonio Express News.
His case with Bexar County had concluded: He had recently been sentenced to four years probation on a domestic battery charge, according to court records. But ICE requested a hold on him separate from those charges, KENS reported, meaning that he should have been kept in jail through the duration of investigators’ look into his immigration status.
The recent state conviction was for choking a family member, according to KSAT.
But since the accidental release happened after the criminal courts in Bexar County decided on probation, the courts and the cops have no recourse for putting him back behind bars, Salazar’s said in the statement.
“Local officers have no authority to arrest or detain this person at this point. He is not considered an escapee,” Salazar’s statement said.
The case brings to light the sometimes-awkward interplay between courts and law enforcement entities — governed at the local and county levels —and federal law enforcement bodies like ICE.
Salazar’s full statement reads:
“A person who had a state charge and an ICE detainer was sentenced 4 years probation on the state charge, but was inadvertently walked out with another group of released persons. The person had satisfied conditions of his state charge, and only the detainer remained. As such, local officers have no authority to arrest or detain this person at this point. He is not considered an escapee.”
ICE officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
“All of ICE’s public affairs officers are out of the office for the duration of the government shutdown,” according to an automatic reply to an email sent to ICE media relations officials.
This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 11:42 AM.
