Immigration authorities released man who went on to kill 3 in North Miami

[alp227]

When burglar Kesler Dufrene became a twice-convicted felon in 2006, a Bradenton judge shipped him to prison for five years. And because of his convictions, an immigration judge ordered Dufrene deported to his native Haiti.

That never happened.

Instead, when Dufrene’s state prison term was up, Miami immigration authorities in October 2010 released him from custody. Two months later, North Miami police say, he slaughtered three people, including a 15-year-old girl in a murder case that remains as baffling today as it did the afternoon the bodies were discovered.

DNA on a rifle found inside the house and cellphone tracking technology later linked Dufrene to the Jan. 2, 2011, slayings.

(...)

The episode is a black eye for U.S. authorities, who by law could not detain Dufrene indefinitely after the Obama administration ordered a temporary halt of deportations to the island nation. The deportations were halted because of the carnage wrought by Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/22/v-fullstory/2602909/immigration-authorities-released.html

(ETA) Because Dufrene has parents living in the US (and who aided/abetted him), had been twice convicted of felonies, and did not get an additional federal sentence for illegal entry, he probably had his legal residency revoked and thus couldn't be indefinitely detained.

[Mojorabbit]

1. He should have been kept in custody perhaps

It makes humanitarian sense not to deport someone to a country that has been hit horribly by a natural disaster where so much infrastructure was destroyed but releasing him was not the answer in this case. Perhaps he did not have a criminal record and they thought he would be safe to release?

[provis99]

2. he had two felony convictions, as the OP stated.

[alp227]

3. this guy, age 23, already had a long criminal history

Dufrene, a native of Haiti, had a long history of arrests in Manatee County — nine in all, his first at age 14 for battery on a teacher.

In February 2006, Dufrene was on probation for stealing a car when he was rearrested, this time for burglary. He was found hiding in a bedroom closet in a vacant house in Manatee County. Neighbors wrestled him down and held him until police arrived. Dufrene claimed he was cold and looking for shelter.

In July 2006, deputies again arrested him after a homeowner surprised him inside another Manatee County home. Five months later, Dufrene pleaded guilty to one of the burglaries and violating probation, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

“Under binding Supreme Court precedent, ICE’s authority to detain any individual is limited when the removal of that individual is not likely in the reasonably foreseeable future,” the immigration agency’s statement said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2001 and 2005 that foreign nationals who cannot be deported may not be held in detention longer than six months. Deportations resumed in mid-January 2011 — three months after Dufrene was released from custody under ICE supervision. The agency did not specify what that supervision entailed.

The 2001 case is Zadvydas v. Davis. The 2005 case is Jama v. ICE.

[Mojorabbit]

4. He fell through some cracks then?

Couldn't keep him and could not deport him? Excuse my reading comphrension. I have had the flu for the past four days and am loaded up with cold medicine.

[Zalatix]

5. Maybe the title was poorly worded or something but...

are you implying that this is a lesson for Americans that immigrants are a bigger danger, or that the problem here is we let loose a dangerous criminal into society?

This is not worthy of being an issue simply because of things surrounding his immigrant status. Seriously, we let go of twice-convicted American citizen felons all the time who do heinous things like this.

[redqueen]

9. +1

[BOHICA12]

6. He'll get to stay now ...

in a real small cell at Raiford. I doubt he will escape the executioner.

[alp227]

7. he committed suicide 2 weeks after the murders

[BOHICA12]

8. Opps ... help if I read the story. My Bad. nt