- Feliciano Perez-Bautista, an illegal alien who was already deported twice, was arrested and charged with manslaughter for his alleged involvement in a gang-style assault.
- ICE lodged a detainer with the Yonkers Police Department and the Westchester Police Department, but both of those requests were ignored, and Perez-Bautista was released back into the public.
- ICE agents were able to arrest Perez-Bautista themselves in November, and the agency released a statement highlighting the dangers of sanctuary cities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehended an illegal alien accused of manslaughter and other crimes after local police, refusing cooperation with federal immigration authorities, released him back into the public, the agency revealed Monday.
Feliciano Perez-Bautista, a Mexican national living illegally in the U.S., was arrested by the Yonkers Police Department (YPD) on July 8 for gang assault in the first degree, according to a press release from ICE. However, after Perez-Baustina’s victim succumbed to his injuries, he was additionally charged with manslaughter of the first degree.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations lodged a detainer request with the YPD on July 12 and lodged a request with the Westchester Department of Corrections on July 30. However, neither detainer was honored, and Perez-Bautista was ultimately released back into the community without the local officials notifying ICE.
Federal immigration authorities were able to arrest him on Nov. 26, and he is now being held in ICE custody pending his deportation to his home country of Mexico.
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A spokesperson for the agency blasted local law enforcement for refusing to honor their immigration detainer and allowing Perez-Bautista to be released, allowing him to potentially harm others.
“When law enforcement agencies decide to not honor ICE detainers and release violent criminals back onto the streets, they are putting their city at serious risk,” ICE New York Field Office Director Thomas Decker said in a statement released Monday. “We want nothing more than to cooperate and work together with local law enforcement authorities in order to protect our communities and keep this nation secure.”
Perez-Bautista had already been deported from the U.S. in May 2013 and again in September 2014, according to information provided by ICE. It’s not clear when, or how, he was able to return both times.
Local media reported that Perez-Bautista had allegedly taken part in a gang-style assault on one man, Effginio Jose Rojas, in July. Police found Rojas laying the ground, bleeding and unresponsive, in a parking lot. He was quickly rushed to the hospital, and then to a trauma center, but he later passed away from his injuries.
The ICE spokesperson went on to frame decisions to refuse cooperation with ICE as political calculations that put communities in danger.
“Unfortunately, more and more we are seeing politicians place their own political agenda above the safety of the citizens in which they serve,” Decker continued. “This leaves local law enforcement agencies handcuffed by these reckless policies which give them no choice but to release criminals, like this unlawfully present Mexican national charged with manslaughter, back onto the streets to further terrorize the community.”
An immigration detainer is a request by ICE, asking local authorities that have an illegal alien in custody to maintain their hold of that individual for no longer than 48 hours, giving ICE agents time to arrive and make an arrest. However, a growing number of Democratic-led localities have begun shunning cooperation with ICE altogether. (RELATED: New York County Clerk Is Refusing To Give Driver’s Licenses To Illegals, Despite New Law)
Yonkers, a suburb of New York City, largely follows the same approach of the country’s most populous city when it comes to not honoring detainers. The New York City Police Department received a total of 2,916 detainer requests from ICE between July 1, 2018 and June 30 of this year. Every single one of those requests was ignored by the NYPD.
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