Federal immigration authorities ripped a “sanctuary” county near Washington, D.C., for ignoring a detainer request and releasing a criminal illegal migrant convicted of having intercourse with a child.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents apprehended 26-year-old Salvadoran national Geovany Alex Pineda-Echeverria in the northern Virginia area last month, the agency announced in a Tuesday press release. Deportation officers had already removed Pineda-Echeverria back to his home country several years ago, but he later returned to the United States and remained at large for months after being convicted of a sex crime against a Virginia minor.
The agency was forced to make an apprehension out in the field after a detention center in Fairfax County, Virginia — a jurisdiction largely regarded as a “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants — reportedly chose not to honor ICE’s detainer request and released the Salvadoran national back into the local community.
“In addition to repeatedly disregarding American immigration laws, Geovany Alex Pineda-Echeverria also victimized a child in Virginia,” ERO Washington, D.C., Field Office Director Liana Castano said in a statement. “Pineda represented a significant threat to Virginia children, and we could not allow that to persist.”
“ERO Washington, D.C. will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing the most egregious noncitizen offenders from our Washington, D.C. and Virginia communities,” Castano continued.
Pineda was first arrested by Fairfax County police in November 2018 and charged with felony carnal knowledge of a child, according to ICE. He had previously crossed into the U.S. illegally at an unknown date and location, meaning he was an unknown “gotaway.”
Local authorities in Fairfax County transferred Pineda to ICE custody that same month, according to the agency. An immigration judge ordered the illegal migrant to be removed from the U.S. in March 2019, and deportation officers sent him back to his home country of El Salvador in April 2019.
Pineda made his way back to the states several years later, with Border Patrol agents arresting him in June 2022 after he unlawfully crossed the border near Rio Grande Valley, Texas, ICE says. Texas authorities — who now increasingly enforce immigration laws — convicted him of illegal re-entry after deportation in January 2023 and later extradited him to Fairfax County, Virginia, on an active warrant relating to his child sex charges.
The Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court convicted Pineda on Feb. 27, 2023 of misdemeanor consensual sexual intercourse with a child and sentenced him to roughly three months jail time, the agency said. ICE issued a immigration detainer for him earlier that year, which asks to hold noncitizens long enough for deportation officers to arrive and make an apprehension, but the agency says the Fairfax Adult Detention Center ignored the request, and released Pineda on an unknown date without notifying the agency.
However, members of ICE’s Special Response Team were able to arrest Pineda on their own in Woodbridge, Virginia, on June 28, the agency announced, and he remains in ICE custody.
Fairfax County is listed as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction by the Center for Immigration Studies, with the group citing a 2018 policy enacted by the county sheriff limiting how local authorities can honor detainer requests. The county claims it is not a “sanctuary county” on its website, but also acknowledges that county officials will not enforce civil immigration law as they believe it is solely a responsibility of the federal government.
A Fairfax County police officer was suspended several years ago for turning an illegal migrant involved in a traffic accident over to ICE after discovering the individual skipped out on a deportation hearing. The sheriff at the time called the action a “lapse in judgement” as officers are trained not to cooperate with ICE on these matters.
Since fiscal year 2021, Border Patrol agents have encountered more than seven million foreign nationals crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, according to the latest Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. In that time frame, Border Patrol agents have arrested more than 56,000 noncitizens wanted by law enforcement or are already convicted criminals.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Photo by Mani Albrecht U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Public Affairs Visual Communications Division)
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