CORONA, NY- Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested an illegal immigrant after he was released from police custody in New York. Though the suspect was arrested for multiple violent charges including criminal possession of a weapon and assault, he was released due to New York’s sanctuaries laws.
Fernando Olea-Prado, 25, was initially arrested on September 11 by local police for a slew of charges. An ICE News Release outlines the charges the Sureños street gang leader is facing:
“On Sept. 11, 2020, New York Police Department arrested and charged Olea-Prado, an unlawfully present Mexican national, with three counts of robbery, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, and criminal possession of stolen property.”
Olea-Prado has had multiple other run-ins with ICE after illegally entering the country twice in 2013. On both occasions Olea-Prado was deported back to Mexico. The illegal immigrant was able to reenter the US for a third time which led to criminal and gang activity.
Despite Olea-Prado’s long criminal record he was protected and released from police custody under New York’s sanctuary city laws. ICE put out a detainer for the gang leader to prevent his escape but New York law prevents local law enforcement from working with ICE.
The ICE New Release claimed that the state’s policy forbids law enforcement from honoring detainers:
“After his most recent arrest, Olea-Prado had been released from local law enforcement custody despite being the subject of an active ICE detainer. Local law enforcement agencies routinely fail to honor ICE detainers as a matter of policy, which was adopted by the local city government.”
Thomas R. Decker, the New York field office director of Enforcement and Removal Operations with ICE, gave a statement on Olea-Prado’s case saying:
“Where is the concern for the safety of the citizens that these local politicians were elected to protect? It’s reprehensible that local politicians passed a law that allows a twice-removed, violent street gang member to be released from custody to commit more violence in this city.”
He continued:
“When you have a criminal alien, like Olea-Prado, who flouts U.S. immigration laws, coupled with his gang membership, and the safe haven granted by local politicians, it creates a dangerous situation for New York City residents. That’s why ICE officers must continue removing violent criminals like Olea-Prado.”
Fortunately ICE was able to apprehend Olea-Prado on October 1 despite New York’s effort to protect the criminal. The suspect will remain in ICE’s custody while he goes through removal proceedings.
CALIFORNIA– On Wednesday, October 7th, Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials announced the arrest of 128 people in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco areas between September 28th and October 2nd.
The arrests come as part of the agency’s latest “Operation Rise”, which sought to arrest individuals who have been “arrested for crimes but were released by state or local law enforcement agencies, despite having active immigration detainers in place,” according to a news release from ICE on Tuesday.
The acting Department of Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf said in the news release:
“Unfortunately, certain local politicians, including many in California continue to put politics over public safety. Instead of fulfilling our shared mission to protect our communities, they would rather play politics with the law by enacting so-called sanctuary city policies to the detriment of our country’s safety,”
The immigrants that were arrested are said to have been previously convicted of homicide, sexual assault, and other serious crimes.
Tony H. Pham, the senior official performing the duties of the director at ICE, said in a written statement:
“A part of ICE’s mission is to protect the American people and provide security to our communities. We accomplish this when we are partners and not adversaries with our localities,
“Unfortunately, California’s sanctuary laws protect and shield criminal aliens, harboring them in our communities where they can potentially reoffend and revictimize.”
California is a sanctuary state, and under California’s immigrant-sanctuary law, cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agents is limited. Local law enforcement cannot collaborate with immigration enforcement agents except in cases involving more serious crimes, according to KTLA5.
ICE agents possess the authority to arrest any individuals suspected to be immigration violators, however, with the lack of cooperation from local law enforcement their jobs are that much more difficult.
The agency said:
“ICE maintains that cooperation with local law enforcement is essential to protecting public safety, and the agency aims to work cooperatively with local jurisdictions to ensure that criminal aliens are not released into U.S. communities to commit additional crimes,”
Here is more on the original story Law Enforcement Today brought you regarding the intended ICE raids.
Contrary to the belief of some, there are no “law-free zones” when it comes to immigration. Federal immigration laws are valid throughout the United States, including in “sanctuary” jurisdictions.
Since the start of his presidency, President Trump has made a huge push to have ICE crack down on illegal immigration across the country.
However, many local departments in sanctuary jurisdictions have refused to turn criminal illegal aliens over to ICE agents, so now they are planning to take matters into their own hands.
It is reported that Federal immigration officials are planning a series of raids on criminal illegal aliens in the nation’s largest sanctuary jurisdictions.
Those familiar with the operation told The Washington Post the raids will be carried out in sanctuary jurisdictions across California, as well as in Denver, Colorado, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Post reports:
“The Trump administration is preparing an immigration enforcement blitz next month that would target arrests in U.S. cities and jurisdictions that have adopted “sanctuary” policies, according to three U.S. officials who described a plan with public messaging that echoes the president’s law-and-order campaign rhetoric.
“The Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, known informally as the “sanctuary op,” could begin in California as soon as later this week.
It would then expand to cities including Denver and Philadelphia, according to two of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive government law enforcement plans.
“We do not comment on any law enforcement sensitive issues that may adversely impact our officers and the public,” Mike Alvarez, an ICE spokesman, said Tuesday in response to questions about the planned raids.
“However, every day as part of routine operations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets and arrests criminal aliens and other individuals who have violated our nation’s immigration laws.”
According to Breitbart, most recently, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has conducted raids in sanctuary jurisdictions in Chicago, Illinois, and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where local sheriff departments refuse to turn criminal illegal aliens over to ICE agents.
Out of those raids, there were 12 arrests of illegal aliens made in Mecklenburg County, and 88 arrests made in Chicago. In Mecklenburg County, six out of the 12 had already been released back into the community. In Chicago, many of those arrested were convicted of crimes such as first-degree murder, attempted robbery, and domestic battery
It is reported that according to ICE officials, 80% of illegal aliens that commit crimes and are set free, go on to commit additional crimes.
Law Enforcement Today brought you more on the immigration crime in some of the sanctuary cities back in March.
Sanctuary cities want you to believe that they’re only shielding illegal immigrants from ICE that have done no wrong (aside from being in the country illegally, of course).
Yet, we see example after example of these “sanctuary” cities shielding criminal illegal immigrants.
Even when people host various convictions of previous crimes and get rearrested, ICE detainers get ignored left and right.
The most recent example is Christopher Puente, who was arrested in Chicago in June of 2019. He was released back into the community to then rape a 3-year old girl last month.
Puente’s detainer was ignored because of the sanctuary policies the city engages in.
Then we had the murder of 92-year-old Maria Fuertes in New York back in January of this year.
Another illegal immigrant that allegedly committed a crime that could have been stopped.
That’s because ICE issued a detainer for Reeaz Khan when he was arrested in November of 2019 for assault and weapons charges. Once again, the detainer was ignored.
Mayor Bill de Blasio tried to make it seem like they do cooperate with ICE, despite being a sanctuary city in a statement on Twitter:
“New York City has passed its own common-sense laws about immigration enforcement that have driven crime to record lows. There are 177 crimes under NYC law that trigger cooperation with federal authorities, if and when someone is convicted. That policy has kept us safe.”
The key takeaways from de Blasio’s statement are “common sense” and “if and when someone is convicted”.
First off, there’s a complete lack of “common sense” in not cooperating with ICE when an illegal immigrant has been arrested for suspected crimes like assault and weapons charges.
Also, the idea that someone needs to be convicted of one of “177 crimes” to serve the interests of standing immigration laws is preposterous.
Could you imagine any New York police department not honoring another police agency’s request for someone wanted for criminal trespassing, under one of their three NYPL sections, unless they were convicted of one of 177 crimes?
That’s basically de Blasio’s rationale for if and when they work with ICE.
ICE, for the most part, wants to focus their efforts on deporting criminal illegal immigrants.
There simply aren’t enough resources within the agency to hone in on mere immigration violations alone. When ICE is aware that an illegal immigrant has been arrested for something within the country, they want to prioritize immigration hearings for those individuals.
However, since sanctuary cities have been demonstrably uncooperative, they’ve now been forced to step-up their presence in sanctuary cities.
This was also largely propelled by the fact that the Center for Immigration Studies reported crime has been increasing in these vary sanctuary cities.
All these sanctuary cities need to do is inform ICE when one of their respective police departments arrested someone who is a person of interest to the federal agency.
By failing to do so, they’re only putting their community and ICE officials in danger, as pointed out by Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf:
“What this does, the only sanctuary it provides is to criminals. It makes those communities less safe. It also makes ICE and law enforcement officials less safe. So instead of picking up an individual in a confined jail setting, they have to go into communities to knock on doors and the like.”
Of course, you see these sanctuary cities and states claiming they’re more than happy to work with ICE, as long as they’re backed up by a judicial warrant.
Really? When it comes to ICE, a judicial warrant is suddenly needed?
If that’s the case, why would these sanctuary cities bother honoring parole violation warrants? Those are typically administrative warrants brought forth by parole boards, and those seem to get honored.
Police often honor detainers issued for AWOL military members, which aren’t judicial, but are issued under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
It’s all a part of the misinformation campaign spread by sanctuary cities, leading people to believe that they focus on judicial warrants in any and all cases of alleged criminality, but not administrative ones.
That is a blatant lie.
As of February of 2020, there are 10 sanctuary states, roughly 133 sanctuary counties, and 37 sanctuary cities or towns.
Sanctuary cities don’t have the best interests of their lawful citizens in mind at all. They pose nothing but a bastion of increased criminal conduct, and a safe haven for those who are unlawfully residing in the country.
Speaking of the dangers of illegal immigrants in our country, we recently reported on one being apprehended in Georgia. What he’s accused of will make your skin crawl.
The Gulf Coast Regional Fugitive Task Force in Augusta, Georgia recently arrested an illegal alien and is in the process of having him extradited back over to Etowah County in Alabama to face charges related to sexually assaulting his step-child.
Jose Bulmaro Cruz-Guillen was arrested on February 18th after having gone on the run when he was indicted in September of 2019 for sex abuse of a child less than twelve, rape in the first degree, and sodomy in the first degree.
In January of 2019, both the Gadsden Police Department and the Department of Human Resources were investigating Cruz-Guillen after his step-daughter confided to a teacher that he’d been molesting her since she was seven-years-old.
This wasn’t the first time that the DHR had looked into Cruz-Guillen. The department had investigated allegations of him punching his four-year old step-son in the face and body multiple times in 2014.
Reports also detail that Cruz-Guillen was arrested twice last year by immigration authorities for illegally crossing the United States-Mexico border. Cruz-Guillen is now in custody facing the additional federal charges in concurrence with those relative to the September, 2019 indictment.
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