An illegal immigrant who was previously deported four times and wanted for rape in Guatemala was released from jail before Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers recently nabbed him, the agency said Monday.
Officers removed Cesar Antiono Rafael Lopez, 22, on Nov. 24 to Guatemala where he’s wanted on rape charges, according to ICE. Border Patrol first arrested Lopez in September 2019 near the remote town of Sasabe, Arizona, and removed him four days later; they encountered him again in 2021 on three separate occasions. (RELATED: Despite Closing Multiple Migrant Detention Centers, The Biden Admin Is Asking Congress To Fund More Holding Space)
On June 3, June 8 and June 12, 2021, Border Patrol encountered Lopez near Deming, New Mexico, and returned him to Mexico each time, ICE said. Police in Wyoming, Michigan, arrested Lopez on Sept. 19 on local charges, placing him in the Kent County Jail, but he was released the same day ICE issued a detainer for his removal.
NEW YORK – APRIL 30: Members of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency keep watch over demonstrators protesting against a new Arizona law on April 30, 2010 outside of a government building which houses ICE in New York City. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Enforcement and Removal Operations(ERO) Detroit lodged a detainer with the Kent County Jail the same day, however, he was released without notification to ERO officers.
“Running from rape charges in your home country will not grant you safe haven here in the United States,” said ERO Detroit Field Office Director Robert Lynch said in a statement Monday. “Our efforts will continue to provide safer communities across Michigan and Ohio by removing dangerous foreign fugitives seeking to evade justice.”
ERO arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories in fiscal year 2022 with 198,498 associated charges and convictions including 21,531 assault offenses 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses 5,554 weapons offenses, 1,501 homicide-related offenses and 1,114 kidnapping offenses, according to the agency.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei told the DCNF in 2022 that he’d been encouraging the Biden administration to ramp up deportations.
“Having all of these people in the United States costs the U.S. government millions and millions of dollars. We have suggested that they should keep the airplanes here, so that we ourselves can deport them back to their countries of origin, be it Haiti or be it whatever the country. If they keep their airplanes here, we can send them back. Otherwise, why wait until the people reach U.S. soil to then spend millions and millions of dollars to then send them back?” Giammattei said.
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