Clerical Error Led To Gang Member's Early Release From Jail: Travis County Sheriff

AUSTIN, TX — The Travis County Sheriff's Office reversed course somewhat on Thursday in connection to a request from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement they reconsider denying their request to detain an inmate that was instead released hours later.

ICE officials said on Tuesday the gang member and four-time deportee was released from the local jail without their office being notified. In response, the sheriff's office said in an email they hadn't received the ICE notice and dashed off a terse news advisory saying ICE had falsely accused the sheriff's office of withholding information.

But on Thursday, sheriff's officials said they had, indeed, received the ICE request to detain Julio Cesar Mendoza-Caballero, 33, to give their agents ample time to retrieve them. The sheriff's office blamed a clerical error on the miscommunication, and Mendoza was instead released by a judge on a personal recognizance bond.

"It has been brought to the attention of TCSO that ICE did in fact send an email at 3:45 pm on June 16, 2017, that provided criminal history information about Julio Cesar Mendoza-Caballero," TCSO spokeswoman Kristen Dark said in an email sent to Patch on Thursday. "The message also requested that our decision to decline his ICE Detainer Request be re-considered."

The spokeswoman added that the ICE detainer request would have been honored had they seen the federal agency's message.

"Our agency deeply regrets that the message was missed due to a clerical error," Dark wrote. "We did not receive either a judicial warrant or an order of removal signed by a judge. Either of those documents would have guaranteed that Mendoza-Caballero’s ICE Detainer Request would have been honored."

ICE officials reportedly later caught up with Mendoza.

While the latest scrape between ICE and the sheriff's office was due to a clerical error, there's no love lost between the two agencies. ICE has consistently accused TCSO of being too soft on immigration enforcement, prompting Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez to accuse ICE of painting an incomplete picture of her department's protocols.

The height of the tension occurred when ICE officials provided lists of detainees they asserted had been released in rebuke of their detainer requests, information that was later deemed flawed. The ICE lists of supposed releases of detainees—covering multiple law enforcement agencies in Texas—had been posted by the Donald Trump-led White House in an attempt to paint a picture of lawlessness and soft enforcement before their use was discontinued given the multiple errors found.

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>>> Booking photo of Julio Cesar Mendoza-Caballero via Travis County Jail records