Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado spoke with Oklahoma lawmakers Tuesday about the issues law enforcement faces when dealing with illegal immigrants who are arrested, released on bail, then disappear.

Regalado says his office has trouble finding illegal immigrants who post bail and then run away because, he says, federal officials aren’t working fast enough.

Regalado says that nearly 10 years ago, his office was able to immediately detain arrested illegal immigrants.

“Once you settled your charges, whether it was termination or prosecution or whatever, you still couldn’t go because you had to go to immigration court,” he said. declared.

Regalado says for the past four years, TCSO has not been allowed to monitor immigrant detainees, which he says has made it difficult to hold these suspects accountable.

“The information has to go to Washington and then come back,” he said. “Well, at that point the individual was cleared for removal, and more often than not we don’t find them, so they don’t respond to local requests for more charges.”

Community leader Blanca Zavala says she hasn’t heard of this problem.

“Most of them will have a photo ID or something from their country of origin and so they will give their name,” she said.

Regalado says that because he says so many illegal immigrants are skipping bonds, they should not be offered bonds in the future.

“I mean, it’s been proven time and time again and so we have to have a mechanism to deal with these people,” he said.

He believes immigration enforcement is a federal issue, but says TCSO will intervene if necessary.

“As local law enforcement, we have an obligation to protect our citizens, and our legislators must find a way to do so legally,” Regalado said.

Sheriff Regalado also mentioned House Bill 4156, which passed this spring but was suspended by a federal judge, which would allow agents to arrest illegal immigrants in Oklahoma simply because they are in the country illegally.

Regalado says the bill places too much responsibility on officers and would harm the relationship TCSO has built with the immigration community.