US

EXCLUSIVE: Illegal Alien, Alleged Drug Trafficker On The Loose After Sanctuary Authorities Let Him Go, ICE Says

Shutterstock

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Jason Hopkins Immigration and politics reporter
Font Size:
  • Mexican national Francisco Vasquez-Cruz was arrested on drug-trafficking charges by Oregon State Police on April 28 and booked into the Jackson County Jail. 
  • Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that Vasquez-Cruz is in the United States illegally, and is considered an ICE fugitive after Jackson County authorities ignored its detainer request and released him into the public. 
  • Oregon is a sanctuary state that largely restricts how local and state law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested that Oregon authorities cooperate on the transfer of an illegal alien arrested for drug possession and money laundering, but they refused and the alien is at-large, the agency confirmed.

Two men, Leonel Campos-Valdez and Francisco Vasquez-Cruz, were traveling in a Ford-150 pickup on April 28 when they were stopped by an Oregon State Police trooper for multiple traffic violations, local authorities first revealed. After observing “potential criminal behavior,” the trooper conducted a search of the vehicle.

That search led to the discovery of nearly 20 pounds of methamphetamine and $16,660 in cash, according to ICE. The two men were booked into the Jackson County Jail for unlawful possession, unlawful delivery of meth and money laundering.

Vasquez-Cruz, 24, is a Mexican national living illegally in the United States, ICE confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. This is not his first run-in with American law enforcement, the agency noted.

US-MILITIA-GOVERNMENT-UNREST

Oregon State Police officers monitor a closed area at a road checkpoint on Highway 78 approximately 4 miles from the Malheur Wildlife Refuge Headquarters near Burns, Oregon on January 28, 2016. (Photo credit should read ROB KERR/AFP via Getty Images)

“Francisco Vasquez-Cruz is a citizen of Mexico and in the United States illegally. On April 28, Vasquez-Cruz was arrested by the Oregon State Police for charges of unlawful delivery of methamphetamine, laundering a monetary instrument and unlawful possession of methamphetamine and booked into the Jackson County Jail in Medford, Oregon,” ICE spokeswoman Tanya Roman said in a statement provided to the DCNF.

ICE lodged a detainer request for Vasquez-Cruz the very next day. Detainer requests, which are standard procedure by the agency, ask local authorities in possession of a wanted illegal alien to notify ICE of their impending release and to temporarily hold the individual until an ICE agent can arrive. (RELATED: Sanctuary Authorities Asking Public For Help After Releasing Illegal Alien Charged With Child Sexual Assault)

However, authorities with the Jackson County Jail did not honor the request, and released Vasquez-Cruz the same day that the detainer request was made.

“Vasquez-Cruz is now considered an ICE fugitive and may be prosecuted for illegal re-entry in violation of 8 USC 1326,” Roman continued in her statement.

The Mexican national is subject to illegal re-entry prosecution because he had previously entered the United States illegally and was deported by the federal government. Immigration records from Border Patrol revealed that Vasquez-Cruz was deported back to Mexico on Jan. 30, 2016.

Vasquez-Cruz’s whereabouts are not immediately clear. Officials with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office did not return a request for comment from the DCNF.

The incident appeared to be the latest consequence of Oregon’s decades-old status as a “sanctuary” state, meaning it has laws on the books that limit how state and local law enforcement can interact with federal immigration authorities. As far back as 1987, the Oregon legislature passed a law that forbids the state’s police departments from using resources to arrest or detain individuals based on immigration violations.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown speaks at the state capital building in Salem, Oregon , February 20, 2015. Brown, a liberal Democrat from Portland, outlined her policy agenda on Friday in her first media event since she took the helm of the Pacific Northwest state to replace John Kitzhaber, whose decades-long political career dissolved in the wake of an influence-peddling scandal involving his fiancee. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola | OR Gov Redacts Thousands Of Meetings

Oregon Governor Kate Brown speaks at the state capital building in Salem, Oregon , February 20, 2015. REUTERS/Steve Dipaola | OR Gov Redacts Thousands Of Meetings

“No law enforcement agency of the State of Oregon or of any political subdivision of the state shall use agency moneys, equipment or personnel for the purpose of detecting or apprehending persons whose only violation of law is that they are persons of foreign citizenship present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws,” a section of the Oregon law reads.

Such a law prevents local law enforcement from honoring detainer requests when ICE agents lodge them.

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has doubled down on the state’s sanctuary status. The progressive governor issued an executive order in February 2017 that applies immigration-related restrictions to all agencies in the state.

Actions taken by ICE indicate how little trust exists between the agency and Oregon authorities.

Authorities in Multnomah County arrested an illegal alien for a deadly hit-and-run accident in 2019, but released him into the public after ignoring an ICE detainer request. After ICE agents apprehended the individual, the agency said it would not hand him back to Multnomah County authorities unless they provided an arrest warrant and a judicial transport warrant.

The warrants were necessary because of the local authorities’ refusal to cooperate with them, ICE said.

“Any local jurisdiction thinking that refusing to cooperate with ICE will result in a decrease in local immigration enforcement is mistaken,” the agency said in a statement.

It added: “These dangerous policies (sanctuary policies) leave ICE with no choice but to increase enforcement in neighborhoods and workplaces to locate and arrest these persons while they are at-large — increasing the likelihood that other individuals previously not targeted for arrest will be taken into ICE custody.”

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