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Feds, local law enforcement work to keep undocumented suspects behind bars

ICE announced an agreement with 17 Florida sheriff's offices changing the protocol for holding undocumented immigrants.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is a division of the Department of Homeland Security.

Polk deputies say a man driving drunk hit and killed a man on a scooter.

He had been arrested five times and he was in the country illegally.

They say a woman was deported several times, only to return and become head of a meth ring in Polk.

Another criminal in the U.S. illegally.

On Wednesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced an agreement with 17 Florida sheriff’s offices, including Pinellas, Manatee, Hernando, Polk, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Pasco counties.

The agreement changes the protocol for holding undocumented immigrants.

Before this, sheriff's offices could only hold people for 48 hours after they resolved their local charges or posted bond.

If ICE hadn't stepped in by then, sheriff's offices had no choice but to release them even if they believed they were a danger.

So what's changing?

Under this agreement, inmates become "federal detainees" inside the county jail and can be held longer.

Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri voiced strong support for the agreement.

“We cannot continue to keep doing what we’ve been doing and have sheriffs faced with the situation of putting illegals on the street or run the risk of getting sued and having six-figure judgments. No sheriff in this country should be faced with making that decision.”

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