(NewsInsights.org) – Politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to joust over how to address the continuing immigration problems at the Southern US border. In practical terms, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) remain overwhelmed by the sheer number of encounters they must deal with daily. ICE recently admitted to mistakenly releasing a convicted murderer from Colombia into the country with a notice to appear.
In November 2023, Efrain Vidales Vargas, 49, a convicted felon from Colombia, entered the US illegally in the Yuma sector of Arizona, near San Luis. CBP agents apprehended him. How he got to the US remains unclear.
Colombian authorities arrested Vargas in 2014 on charges of aggravated theft, aggravated homicide, and weapons possession. A Bucaramanga, Colombia, criminal court convicted him of those allegations in 2016, handing down a 17-year sentence.
However, ICE holding facilities in Yuma were overflowing at the time because the neighboring Tucson sector had also overflowed and subsequently transported detainees to Yuma. As a result, ICE agents mistakenly released Vargas on his own recognizance with an order to appear before a Justice Department Immigration Judge instead of holding him for deportation.
On May 6, Boston-based ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) agents captured Vargas in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, near his home. He remains detained pending deportation to Colombia to serve the remainder of his sentence.
In response to media queries about Vargas’s November release, an ICE spokesperson released an email statement that said the agency only employed “around 4,000 deportation officers” compared to the number of people they must oversee: “a national non-detained docket of more than 7 million noncitizens.” The email also noted that the numbers continue to increase daily.
Additionally, the official admitted that Vargas “unlawfully entered the US in November 2023 [and] was erroneously released from ICE custody.” News Nation noted that US authorities had not arrested Vargas for any crimes during his six-month stay.
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