In a followup to this piece: Dallas jail guard arrested for being in country illegally, the Dallas Morning News has this up.

Arrest of Dallas County jail guard suspected of being in country illegally spurs new rules

Dallas County and Sheriff’s Department officials said Monday they plan to enact new policies requiring annual or periodic checks of the legal status of non-U.S. citizens working as jail guards or deputies.

The policy change is in response to the arrest Friday of a sheriff’s jail guard on charges of being in the country illegally. Employers are responsible for making sure employees are legally eligible to work in the United States.

Officer Maria Elvia Ross, 34, of Irving was arrested at work by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and faces deportation because of civil immigration violations.

Ross was deported from the United States in 1998, ICE spokesman Carl Rusnok confirmed Monday. He said he could not provide the circumstances of the deportation or of Ross’ re-entry into the country.

Ross was married in Dallas County – the first of two marriages here – in August 2000, court records show. The couple divorced less than two years later.

ICE has not released details about the allegations against Ross or the nature of her immigration status. A court hearing has not been scheduled.

Full Story Here:
Arrest of Dallas County jail guard suspected of being in country illegally spurs new rules

There appears to be a lot more to this incident than meets the eye.

Dr. Mattye Mauldin-Taylor, the county’s human resources director, said Ross had a temporary work permit when she was hired by the Sheriff’s Department in 2001 – two years before a rule took effect requiring deputies and jail guards to be U.S. citizens.

Mauldin-Taylor said Ross provided the Sheriff’s Department with documentation of her ability to work in the United States every year until 2005. She said the Sheriff’s Department should have followed up every year to make sure Ross was legally eligible to work in the United States.

“Both of us would bear some responsibility for that,” she said.

Dr. Mauldin-Taylor might need to take on the title of ‘Captain Obvious’. Of course the County bears responsibility. Maria Elvia Ross should have taken responsibility as well, but once an ILLEGAL feels safe and secure, they aren’t so prompt about taking care of little details like the renewal of work permits, visas and the like.

Rusnok, the ICE spokesman, said employers are responsible for “tracking expiration dates and reverifying employees’ eligibility to work in the United States.”

Mauldin-Taylor said her department is reviewing its procedures and will create a rule under which the work eligibility of non-citizens will be checked every year.

“There’s not really any follow-up once they produce the documentation” when applying for a job, she said.

Apparently, Maria Elvia Ross slipped through the cracks for the last 5 years or so. That poses a couple of other questions that need to be asked, and answered.

Why was Dallas County hiring non-citizens to work in a Law Enforcement position to begin with, and how many more non-citizens are already in position, working for the County in who knows what type of position? Ducking and covering, slipping through the cracks just like Maria Elvia Ross has done?

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Dallas County sheriff’s jail guard arrested for being in country illegally

A Dallas County sheriff’s jail guard was arrested at work this morning by federal immigration officers for being in the country illegally and faces deportation, county and federal officials said.

Maria Elvia Ross, 34, was taken into custody by officers with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement sometime after 10 a.m., officials said.

Ross, who was hired in 2001, has served on Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s quality assurance team that oversees improvements to sanitation in the jails.

Ross’ citizenship problem came to light when she underwent a background check after recently applying to be a sheriff’s deputy, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price said.

Full Story Here:
Dallas County sheriff’s jail guard arrested for being in country illegally

I think anyone that has read my blog knows, I am PRO police and law enforcement. That said, I am seriously laughing while reading this story.

Let me make this VERY clear, I have great respect for the Deputies that work Dallas County, they are doing the best they can with the command staff they have in place.

That said, in MY opinion, the Dallas County Sheriffs command staff is a joke and Commissioner John Wiley Price is a lot more likely to be lined up with some of the New Black Panthers we’ve been posting about recently as he is with anyone that’s NOT Black or Hispanic.

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez is an openly lesbian, very left leaning liberal Democrat and Hispanic. She was elected Sheriff by the homosexual and Hispanic community of Dallas proper. She didn’t do well at all in the County itself. Most of Dallas County, outside of the City of Dallas, is Conservative.

Valdez took 2 years to successfully pass her Texas Peace Officer Certification examination after being elected. Most officers, as I understand it, are required to be TPOC before taking a position. I might be wrong since I have never been a Texas Peace Officer, I am hoping that some of my Texas LEO readers will weigh in on this.

For Maria Elvia Ross to have served on Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s quality assurance team speaks volumes concerning the quality of Valdez’s judgement I believe. It’s obvious that Valdez didn’t bother to vet her QA team.

Price said the department should have caught it when Ross was originally hired in 2001, when Jim Bowles was sheriff.

“The system we have for vetting people is a lot better,” Price said.

I’m a lot more comfortable with the *Blame Bowles* attitude from Price than I am with the *Blame Bush* mantra from Obama and Company.

Jim Bowles, the previous sheriff who was rejected by voters while being investigated on charges related to a jail commissary scandal, has decided he wants his old job back.
(snip)
Mr. Bowles was under FBI investigation for his relationship with a jail contractor when he was indicted by a Dallas County grand jury for allegedly misusing more than $100,000 in campaign donations. A state district judge later tossed out the indictment. SOURCE

Obviously, Bowles didn’t run the tightest ship in the fleet. He beat the scandal but he still lost to Valdez, and, Ross was hired under his administration.

Ross recently divorced Dallas County sheriff’s deputy, David Ross, whom she married in 2005.

Now I’m not making an accusation mind you, but do you suppose the recent divorce may have had something to do with this? There have been many cases where a vindictive EX has dropped a dime on a former spouse. Just sayin’…