. . .frustrated police in Kansas and Tennessee were forced to release 39 suspects because officials from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Department refused to take them into custody.
Twenty-seven Hispanic men, ranging in age from 18 to 35, were temporarily detained by the Coffee County sheriff on charges of criminal trespassing when the van they were traveling in was stopped for reckless driving. Neither the driver, who had no license, nor his 26 passengers hiding in the back of the van spoke English.
The men, placed under $500 bond were scheduled for court appearances and transfer to federal immigration officials but were, instead, freed to continue their journey, when the Coffee County district attorney's office received word that federal officials didn't want to deal with the illegals.
"There has to be a crime committed," Assistant District Attorney Felicia Walkup said, who concluded the charge of criminal trespassing could not be supported under Tennessee law.
Well, of course. We all know that felonious illegal entry into the United States isn't a crime. Nor is reckless driving, apparently.
In the second instance this week, Wichita police detained 12 illegal aliens in a moving van stopped for a minor traffic violation but were forced to release them because immigration officials said they were too busy to pick them up for detention.
"We have some real issues with immigration and illegal immigration. This has happened before," said Jackie Stuart, of the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. "We don't have anything we can charge them with. ... If they violated the law, we could do something, but we can't do anything."
The van's driver, an illegal immigrant living in Tennessee, had no driver's license. He was cited for several traffic violations and freed.
And in Kansas, illegal status, driving without a license, and other traffic violations aren't crimes. Exactly what constitutes criminal behavior worthy of detention, according to the feds?
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