TAVARES, Fla. — Officials announced Friday that the Lake County Sheriff’s Department has been accepted into a partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) allowing them to now hold undocumented immigrants for up to 48 hours so they can be deported.
The new partnership will allow deputies to hold any illegal immigrant who is charged with a local crime at the Lake County Jail while I.C.E. agents determine if the immigrant meets the criteria for deportation.
If I.C.E. determines the immigrant meets the criteria and decide to proceed with deportation, deputies can then hold the suspect for up to 48 hours until agents take custody of the immigrant.
The new agreement changes the previous ruling from a Federal Court in 2014 where officials ruled that local law enforcement agencies did not have the authority to hold immigrants for deportation based solely on the request from ICE.
Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell stated in a press release, “This will be a tremendous benefit to the community. We now have the ability to turn violent criminal aliens over to the proper authorities to get them off our streets. Regardless of which side of the immigration issue folks are on, we should all be able to agree on the fact that we don’t need violent offenders in our community when there’s a better option.”
Several other sheriff’s offices throughout Florida have also been accepted into the partnership allowing them to hold immigrants for deportation.
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