Punta Gorda

Congressman Tim Mahoney says the immigration system failed Officer Andrew Widman and his family. The Democrat covers congressional District 16 which includes Charlotte County.

“The immigration folks at ICE, I think made the wrong decision. They put this person out on the street,” Mahoney said.

He’s talking about Abel Arango.  The convicted immigrant from Cuba accused of shooting and killing Fort Myers police officer, Andrew Widman on a downtown street July 18th.

“This tragedy that has befallen this family of 3 children will not happen again,” the Congressman added.

Mahoney announced at the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office his plans to create a bill that would crack down on convicted immigrants.  He calls the bill, “The Officer Andrew Widman Criminal and Alien Enforcement Act.” 

The immigration bill would do four simple things:  keep violent convicted immigrants in jail; place non-violent criminals in a federal probation program; treat anyone who violates probation as an offender; and make sure all cases get the same penalties.

“We're basically taking the immigration authorities' ability to interpret out of the equation,” he said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE claims by law Arango had to be released after 180 days, because Cuba refused to take him back.  Mahoney says his new bill would keep immigrants like Arango in prison no matter what.

ICE says there are thousands of convicted immigrants from Cuba walking around on our city streets with more than 29,000 nationwide and more than 8,000 in Florida. 

If Mahoney's bill gets the green light would we have the space to keep them in our prison system?

Mahoney told NBC2, “The answer is, it doesn't matter.  We don't have the space, we'll get the space.”

We also asked the Congressman about his timing.  Some critics see this announcement as a political ploy to get votes on Election Day.  He’s in the middle of a highly competitive primary election.

“Today is not Election Day for me, today is a work day for me. If there are people that want to play politics with this issue, I’ll let them play politics.”

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and the Fort Myers Police Department say they fully support Congressman Mahoney’s efforts.

“I think it's a step in the right direction.  It might not be everything that we're looking for right now.  But doing something is better than doing nothing,” Fort Myers Interim Police Chief Doug Baker said.

Congressman Mahoney says he'll begin drafting the bill in two weeks when he gets back to Washington, DC.