The Philadelphia Inquirer published an article on June 10th titled “Undocumented mother faces deportation after Montco officials turn her over to ICE. County policy likely to be reviewed.”
The reporting tells the story of Mexican national Andrea Lozano-Alanis, who was recently arrested in East Norriton on charges of child endangerment, recklessly endangering another person, careless and reckless driving, and driving without a license. The charges followed an incident where she is alleged to have rammed her car into the vehicle of a former “romantic partner” in the parking lot of a Truist Bank at the intersection of Johnson Highway and DeKalb Pike. Her child was in her car during the incident.
Bail was set at $77, which is purposely an odd amount to notify the court system that the person charged has a detainer. For a previous unrelated article on AroundAmbler.com, we inquired with Montgomery County about the $77 bail figure and received this response:
A Judge may impose bail at $77 when the defendant also has a probation/parole detainer. Bail cannot be posted on detainers. Setting bail on the newly arraigned case ensures the defendant will get credit for time held on the new charge as well as the Gagnon (probation violation). $77 was selected since it is an obscure amount and will alert the Common Pleas Judge that the defendant has a detainer and does not require a next working day bail review.
In this case, the $77 was paid; however, Montgomery County did not release Lozano-Alanis. Instead, it followed the established county policy to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which the county gives four hours to take the subject into custody. In this case, ICE arrived within four hours. If they hadn’t, Lozano-Alanis would have been released.
The Philadelphia Inquirer article compares Montgomery County’s policy to those in other nearby counties and interviews immigration advocates who have been advocating for Democratic Party-controlled Montgomery County to change its policy. You can read that article here.
Photo: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement