ICE has released 705 from immigration detention centers since November

People deported from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina combined between Oct. 1 and March 7: 4,491, including 3,443 with criminal records and 1,048 without criminal records.

Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Federal authorities have released 705 people from immigration detention centers across the country — including 13 in Georgia — since November, when President Barack Obama announced sweeping efforts to protect millions of immigrants from deportation, according to records obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act.

It’s unknown how many of them were released as a result of Obama’s executive actions on immigration because the government isn’t keeping a tally. But the records give a glimpse of how the government carried out its new enforcement priorities before a federal judge in Texas placed the president’s far-reaching plans on hold last month.

The majority of those released through the use of “prosecutorial discretion” between Nov. 20 and Jan. 3 have no criminal convictions, the records show. And most of the nearly 200 others who do have records were convicted of minor offenses, including traffic violations.

But 14 have committed some form of assault. One is a Cuban national who racked up an extensive criminal record — including convictions for molesting a minor — before being released from the Stewart Detention Center about 140 miles south of Atlanta in December.

The Cuban was ordered deported but was later released to comply with a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The court ruling prohibits ICE from indefinitely detaining people who cannot be deported. The federal agency is unable to deport some people because their home countries refuse to take them back or delay helping facilitate their repatriation, sometimes for months. Cuba has delayed issuing travel documents for such people by an average of 154 days, according to a 2011 report by ICE.

ICE declined to identify the people it has released, citing privacy reasons. Most of those released, according to ICE, remain in deportation proceedings and are being tracked, including with electronic ankle bracelets and required check-ins with authorities. The Cuban released in December is among those ICE is monitoring.

“A number of individuals in ICE removal proceedings or awaiting removal from the country are released on conditions intended to ensure public safety and the individual’s return to court,” ICE said in a prepared statement.

In November, Obama announced the government would offer three-year deportation deferrals and work permits to people who don’t have legal status in the U.S. but do have children who were born here or are legal permanent residents. To be eligible, they must have continually lived in the U.S. since at least Jan. 1, 2010, and have no felony convictions. More than 4 million people could be eligible nationwide.

Obama’s initiative also expands a program granting temporary deportation deferrals to immigrants who were illegally brought here as children. The move eliminated the age cap in the program — now at 31 — and requires them to have continually resided in the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2010, a change in the starting date from June 15, 2007. The White House estimated 270,000 more people could qualify for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

ICE has been releasing some of it detainees who would be eligible for these programs while following instructions in a memo U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson issued Nov. 20. The memo says federal immigration authorities should “immediately begin identifying persons in their custody, as well as newly encountered individuals,” who may be eligible for relief under the president’s plan “to prevent the further expenditure of enforcement resources” connected to them.

ICE confirmed it stopped that screening practice last month, after U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen temporarily placed parts of the Obama administration’s plans on hold. Hanen issued his ruling amid a legal challenge brought by Georgia and 25 other states that argue the president’s actions are unconstitutional. The U.S. Justice Department is appealing the judge’s decision, saying the executive branch has the authority to set priorities and use its discretion while enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

Jessica Vaughan, the director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a research group that advocates tighter immigration controls, said the release of the detainees over the past few months “sends a terrible message that our immigration laws are not going to be enforced.”

“They are still immigration violators,” she said. “And it seems to me there is no good reason to let them off the hook. Somebody has already taken the time and effort and expense to arrest them and process them to begin with.”

Atlanta-area immigration attorneys say some people who are eligible for protection under the president’s executive actions have been detained and deported since Hanen’s ruling. Carolina Antonini, a local immigration attorney who teaches at Georgia State University, cited one of her clients as an example. Eligio Rodriguez Hernandez, a factory worker who was living illegally in Gainesville with his wife and two U.S.-born children, was deported to Mexico this month, Antonini said. He had lived in the U.S. for decades and had no criminal record, Antonini said.

Between Oct. 1 and March 7, the government deported 4,491 people from Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina combined, including 3,443 with criminal records and 1,048 without them, according to ICE removal statistics, which are reported for ICE field offices, some of which cover multiple states.

“We are getting two conflicting messages from the executive branch,” Antonini said. “We are getting the message from the president that deportations should stop and people should be screened for eligibility. But on the ground we are getting something completely different.”

“It is making the U.S. citizens who are losing their spouses and children very upset and angry, and it is creating an atmosphere of fear,” she said. “As one client told me, it feels like a trap.”