Kelei Walker, as acting field director for ICE in Denver, expressed during an interview with The Denver Post that she is open to collaborating with left-wing “immigration advocates,” who often lobby on behalf of those who have crossed our borders illegally.
“In a June 22 interview with The Denver Post, Kelei Walker, the acting field director for ICE in Denver, said the agency has “layers and layers of oversight,” including audits, inspections and an investigative body, with “zero tolerance” for misconduct. She said she has been working to expand engagement with the community and immigration advocates about the agency’s work.
“At the end of the day, we have a mission, and I know that the mission is not supported necessarily by everybody,” Walker said. “But our mission is important and it’s valuable. There’s a real public safety element to it. So the more that we can have conversations with people that are in the community, the better.”
(Source)
ICE has an important job to play in ensuring the integrity of our nation’s immigration system. Left-wing immigration activists make ICE’s job harder by continuously complaining about detention conditions and ICE tactics, no matter what ICE does. Collaborating with left-wing immigration groups cedes the initiative to these groups to continue hampering the important functions that ICE carries out.
Kelei Walker, the Acting Field Director for ICE in Denver, blamed a Colorado law, which restricts local police from holding illegal aliens in jail for ICE to deport, for her office’s inability to react in time to deport them:
“The Larimer County Sheriff's Office told 9NEWS it never received a detainer for Serpa-Acosta when he was arrested in April. They said he was released on April 29 after posting a cash bond.
"The challenge that we have though is when we get notified late in the evenings, in the middle of the night, or on the weekends, and we have very limited time to respond to those cases," said Kelei Walker, Acting Field Office Director for ICE in Denver.
She said an immigration detainer is issued when an immigration official has determined the person in custody meets one of their current priorities, which include a threat to national security, a threat to public safety or a threat to border security. Walker would like county jails in Colorado to give her agency at least 24 hours notice before someone bonds out, so federal agents can pick them up.
"We have a small law enforcement footprint here in terms of officers, and we cover a two state jurisdiction, Colorado and Wyoming," Walker said. "So we don't have the capacity to run 24/7,but we respond 24/7. Unfortunately, in the middle of the night, when a call is made, we may not be able to respond in a timely manner."
Walker said some jails give no notice, and other places give a few hours notice.
Local authorities may not be giving more notice because of a bill lawmakers passed in 2019, making holding someone after they're eligible for release against state law.”
(Source)
While Kelei Walker blames a lack of resources for her Office’s inability to operate 24/7, one must question whether it is a lack of initiative on Walker’s part to get in front of limitations imposed by the Colorado law that is preventing ICE from deporting illegal alien criminals held in custody in local Colorado jails.
