ICE Comments on Immigrants Released in Laredo

It's been a week since the undocumented immigrants were released in Laredo but Immigration and Customs Enforcement is commenting on situation.

ICE sent us a statement that acknowledges what happened last Thursday.

The statement says,

"On December 29th, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Laredo, Texas, released 39 females from central america on their own recognizance after they were briefly detained and issued notices to appear before a federal immigration judge.

During the recent increase of individuals illegally entering the United States in south Texas, individuals who have final destinations within the U.S. are identified and transported to bus terminals and airports."

Congressman Cuellar has been urging ICE to warn communities who will be seeing these groups released in order to provide them with help. But the warning did not come to city leaders, something Cuellar is working to resolve. He says, "No, that's a problem. It's common sense. They should notify local communities before they do this. Quite honestly, it's something that they should have been doing. But, I will make sure that they will now do in the future when I put this language on the appropriation bill where it will mandate them to do it."

Local service group, Catholic Social Services, have been offering their assistance in the form of care packages. They say they are working to prepare for any more who may be coming. However, because the number of people coming is unpredictable, local service centers do not know how much resources are necessary to prepare.

The statement left out the rest of the immigrants who were released after that first group last Thursday. We had seen another group arrive carrying around about 20 women and the station employees told us they had seen about four more groups after the first. ICE did not provide information on these groups.