ICE detainees dropped off at the Monroe Regional Airport

MONROE, La. (KNOE) - At least 75 ICE detainees have been dropped off at the Monroe Regional Airport this week. They’ve been brought here from area correctional centers where they’ve been held for illegally entering the country.

The immigration and customs enforcement detainees came from Richwood, and correction centers in Jackson, and Winn Parishes. They will be flown to their families throughout the United States.

Michael Gahagan from the Immigration Law Firm of New Orleans has represented detainees from all three of the correctional facilities. Here’s what he said about the process of releasing detainees.

“They have the discretion to release a detainee on what’s called parole, they can just process them and issue what’s called a notice to appear and then release them on the notice to appear, released on their own recognizance where they don’t have to pay a bond, they can require the immigrant to pay some sort of a bond to be released,” said Gahagan.

Or, he said the undocumented immigrant can be held in custody until their court day.

In court, they should appear with an attorney to admit or deny the allegations. That’s followed by a hearing trial between ICE and the migrant. If rejected while they’re still being detained, they’re flown home. If rejected while out on release it’s up to the immigrant to leave on their own.

The Louisiana Attorney General’s office is adamantly against President Biden’s immigration policies.

“And so they really don’t have that discretion, the law says these people shall be removed under these conditions, so if someone committed a violent crime, for example, an armed robbery or a sex offense or something like that, they are immediately removable, they are not supposed to be released from prison and left in our care,” said Solicitor General Liz Murrill from the Attorney General’s office.

Murril also said the transportation of undocumented immigrants is up to ice... but that does not always happen.

“We’ve seen some of the detainers canceled, so they’re just not picking people up. Texas has documented that and we’ve documented that as well,” said Murril.

The city of Monroe said in this case, the plane tickets were paid for by their families. But Gahagan said often ICE will pay for their tickets home.

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