Officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, twice released an illegal alien charged with sex crimes against a minor while ignoring a detainer request, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE agents apprehended a 30-year-old Honduran national charged locally for sex crimes against a Virginia minor at his residence in a Maryland suburb earlier this month, the agency announced in a press release on Wednesday. The agency is faulting local authorities for repeatedly releasing the alien, despite an immigration detainer placed on him.
“This Honduran noncitizen stands accused of some very serious crimes and represented a threat to the children of the Washington, D.C. area,” stated ERO Washington, D.C. Field Office Director Liana Castano. “When local jurisdictions have policies in place which prohibit them from cooperating with ICE ERO and from honoring our lawfully issued detainers and administrative warrants, they put the suspects, law enforcement officers, and most importantly, the members of our local communities at risk.” (RELATED: Local Authorities Released Illegal Immigrant Arrested On Assault Charge Back Into Community, ICE Says)
The agency said it doesn’t know when or where the Honduran unlawfully entered the country, noting he was never inspected, admitted or paroled by any U.S. immigration official.
GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA – MAY 29: ICE agents with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and a Guatemalan policeman (C) stand at the scene of an early morning raid where a suspected human trafficker (R), was taken into custody on May 29, 2019 in Guatemala City. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Virginia’s Fairfax County Police Department first arrested the illegal alien on July 5, 2023 and charged him with felony carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years of age, without force, according to the press release. ICE lodged a detainer request on him the next day.
However, the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center failed to honor the detainer and released the man from their custody later that month, according to ICE.
Fairfax County, Virginia, a suburb within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, has remained a bastion for the Democrat Party, having voted for Democrat lawmakers up and down the ballot for years. President Joe Biden also won the county in 2020 by extremely wide margins. Fairfax County has also remained one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the entire U.S.
The Fairfax County Police Department arrested him again on February 22, charging him with two additional counts of felony carnal knowledge of a child 13-14 years of age without force, and two counts of felony indecent liberties with a child under 15 years of age.
ICE says the same local detention center released the man on the same day, giving their agents no time to lodge another detainer request.
Deportation officers were able to make an apprehension on April 15, serving him with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. The agency says he will remain in their custody pending the decision of his removal proceedings.
“ERO Washington, D.C. will continue to prioritize public safety by apprehending and removing the most egregious noncitizen threats from our neighborhoods,” Castano said in the press release.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.
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