Federal immigration officials arrested an illegal alien who is a registered sex offender in North Carolina on July 24, one month after Orange County officials released him from custody without informing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE criticized Orange County officials for their refusal “to honor an ICE detainer and instead released him from local custody in June without any notification to ICE,” the statement read.
Reports indicated that he was previously convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2014, but he avoided being deported from the United States for three years. A federal judge gave the order for his removal in 2015.
The incident allowed a “convicted sex offender” to “pose a public safety threat to North Carolina residents for nearly a month until his capture” by ICE, said officials.
“Nearly 90 percent of all foreign nationals taken into ICE custody this year were targeted following their criminal arrest. Despite efforts by certain groups to misrepresent this reality, the fact is ICE continues to focus its enforcement efforts toward criminals and public safety threats,” ICE Atlanta Field Office Director Sean Gallagher said in a statement.
“When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration detainers and release serious criminal offenders onto the streets it undermines ICE’s ability to protect public safety.”
ICE added that more than two-thirds of those arrested in 2018 by the agency were convicted criminals.
In April, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue and Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminge criticized ICE for its operations across the United States.