The Fresno Bee‘s Mackenzie Mays has published an extraordinary investigation that reveals the State of California is keeping dozens of illegal alien sex offenders in a mental health institution rather than deporting them — often against their wishes.
Mays writes:
The undocumented men at Coalinga State Hospital are in a unique predicament that seems to be nobody’s jurisdiction. They aren’t prisoners, they are “civil detainees.” They entered the country illegally, committed crimes and served their prison sentences. But a state-mandated mental evaluation of sex offenders – a policy that went into effect in 1996 – put them in Coalinga instead of back into society.
The Department of State Hospitals says that it does not track patients’ immigration status, and that only a judge can decide if patients are ready to be released; ICE says the decision is up to the state.