Wake sheriff's move may mean stepped up immigration enforcement

Federal immigration officials are not happy after they say a violent offender who is in the country illegally walked out of the Wake County jail Monday after he was accused of hitting a woman during a domestic dispute.

New Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker says he will not participate in 287G, the federal program where local jails check the immigration status of people arrested and detain them.

Baker told WRAL News Tuesday night he had already released 16 people in the Wake County Detention center that were being held for federal immigration violations .

One of those people was Jose Cordero-Jimenez, who is charged with assaulting a woman.

According to the arrest warrant, Cordero-Jimenez punched and kicked the victim before she dropped their infant son twice.

After his arrest, he was released the same day on a $2,500 bond.

Under the federal 287G program that the former Wake sheriff complied with, the suspect would have been held and handed over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, but Baker ran on a promise to stop that cooperation.

ICE officials say this means they have no choice but to go out into the community and look for those in the country illegally.

"When public safety threats are released back into the community, they are free to re-offend in the time that it takes between their release and the time it takes to locate these individuals and to re-arrest them to take them back into custody," said ICE spokesman Bryan Cox.

Cox said jurisdictions that won't honor the detainer should notify ICE.

"Simply call us and say we're releasing this person at X time (and) it's up to you to be there or not," Cox said.

Baker said the ICE detainment policy is divisive.

"It only serves to further divide and intimidate the citizens of Wake County. It is a policy decision made by ICE to step up enforcement efforts in neighborhoods and at work sites," Baker has said.

Said Baker: "Cox seems to imply that my office is under a duty to notify ICE when a person is released on bond. This is not the case. We are not an arm of the federal government.”

The sheriff also said that Cordero-Jimenez was released on bond by the court, which is perfectly legal, and that it is up to a judge to decide if a person is dangerous to the community and should or should not be released.