US

Sanctuary County Ignored ICE Detainer, Released Alleged Child Sex Abuser Back Into The Community

Prisoner. Shutterstock

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Jason Hopkins Immigration and politics reporter
Font Size:

Authorities in Montgomery County, Maryland, ignored an ICE detainer request for an illegal alien accused of child sex abuse, allowing him to be released on bail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said.

ICE on Tuesday lodged a detainer with the Montgomery County Detention Center for Luis Fredy Hernandez-Morales, a Guatemalan national living in the U.S. illegally, according to an ICE statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. However, ICE said local authorities did not honor the detainer, and allowed him to be released Wednesday on bond.

Kevin Lewis of ABC7 News first reported on Hernandez-Morales’s release.

A warrant was issued for Hernandez-Morales’s arrest Oct. 29 for allegedly sexually abusing a minor. The Guatemalan national, according to investigators, touched a juvenile family member inappropriately on at least two separate occasions at the victim’s home in Montgomery County in July. He is also accused of attempting to engage the child in sexually explicit conversation, and tried to tell the victim not to discuss the incidents with others.

Marc Elrich. Screen grab

Marc Elrich. Screen grab

Hernandez-Morales was arrested in Fairfax, Virginia, and later extradited to Montgomery County.

The turn of events appears incongruous given that Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, recently signaled that he was slightly rolling back an executive order he enacted just several months ago that prohibited cooperation with ICE. The rollback came after Montgomery County remained in the national spotlight over the recent spate of rape and sexual abuse charges leveled on illegal aliens in the county, drawing questions over whether its sanctuary policies were helping the community.

An ICE spokesman called out county leaders for apparently not following through on their announcement to renew cooperation with his agency.

“The best way to serve public safety is to work together,” said ICE acting Field Office Director for Baltimore Frank Madrigal in a statement provided to the DCNF on Friday. “Montgomery County had indicated they would securely transfer dangerous criminals to our custody rather than release them to the community where they can reoffend. These actions indicate they intend otherwise.”

Elrich previously said he would allow ICE agents to apprehend illegal aliens in his county’s custody at “identified areas,” but that did not appear to happen in Hernandez-Morales’s case. Elrich also said agents must arrive before the inmate discharging process ends, but that process can sometimes take less than an hour, giving agents virtually no window to arrive on time. A spokesman for Montgomery County did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. (RELATED: Michelle Malkin Prepares Protest Rally Against ‘Sanctuary’ Montgomery County)

Fortunately for federal immigration authorities, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers in the Washington field office were able to apprehend Hernandez-Morales on Friday.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel