“We fingerprint them and then use biometrics to identify them and the information is shared with ICE,” said Captain Louis Fontanazza from the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
These days anyone booked into the Broward county jail goes through a new high-tech fingerprinting photo process.
Now ICE is closely tied into exactly what happens at the Broward county jail. But why?
“Unfortunately there would be times where someone would leave because we were doing it manually and we would miss them,” said David Bradley.
But this is no longer going to happen. Take Robert Mcray, who was arrested in Broward County for attempted murder. We've found he's also violated our immigration laws. ICE will be waiting for him when he finishes his local or state prison time.
In the past, local police would have criminals like Mcray, who is at the BSO jail, in custody who shouldn't be in the U.S. But by the time ICE would find out they're here, the criminals would have served their local jail time and been released onto the street, sometimes to cause more trouble.
At taxpayer expense, the federal agents would have to track them down again and finally deport them. But with the new biometrics system, once the fingerprints are taken, they are shared with the federal agents. So when Mcray is about to finish his term in Broward, the feds will be waiting at the door.
The next stop for him will be the Krome detection center.
The secure communities program has nabbed 40 illegals in Broward and more than 1,100 around the state. In addition to Broward, the program is also running in Miami Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties.
