Massachusetts authorities “ignored” a detainer request for an illegal migrant charged with forcible rape of a child and released him back into the community, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Police in Lowell, Massachusetts, arrested Maynor Francisco Hernandez-Rodas — a 38-year-old Guatemalan national living in the country unlawfully — on June 14 for alleged aggravated rape of a child and rape of a child with force, according to an ICE press release. However, a county superior court chose to release Hernandez out of jail, despite the heinous nature of the allegations and a request by deportation officers to transfer him directly into their custody.
“Maynor Francisco Hernandez-Rodas stands accused of horrific crimes against a Massachusetts child,” Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said. “He represents a significant danger to the children of our community that we will not tolerate.”
“ERO Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing egregious noncitizen threats from our New England neighborhoods,” Hyde continued.
Hernandez is a “gotaway” who illegally crossed into the U.S. at an unknown location and unknown time without inspection by federal immigration officials, according to ICE.
The Guatemalan national appears to have had his first run in with local law enforcement when he was convicted by a Connecticut district court of breach of peace in September 2011 and sentenced to six months in prison followed by one year of probation, ICE’s press release stated. He was convicted of breach of peace again in May 2016 and handed down a $100 fine.
ICE’s Boston office lodged a detainer request for Hernandez on June 28 after he was arrested by the Lowell Police Department for aggravated child rape 14 days earlier, the agency confirmed. However, after the Middlesex Superior Court arranged him on Sep. 4 for aggravated rape of a child with force and rape of a child by force, the court “ignored” ICE’s detainer and released him from their custody on an unknown date.
Deportation officers were able to nab Hernandez on Sept. 20 in Lowell, Massachusetts, and he remains in ICE custody, according to the agency.
Hernandez’s arrest comes as ICE has appeared to dramatically ramp up apprehensions of alleged criminal illegal migrants in Massachusetts, particularly those accused of sexual crimes.
ICE officers arrested Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez, Elmer Sola, Gean Do Amaral Belafronte and Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo on Nantucket, Massachusetts, in a two-day raid between Sept. 10 and Sept. 11, according to several announcements made by the agency last month. All illegal migrants targeted were previously charged with sex crimes against minors or other residents in the community.
The entire state of Massachusetts is identified as a “sanctuary” jurisdiction by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks such laws across the country. CIS cites a 2017 court decision that limits local authorities’ ability to detain migrants wanted by ICE authorities.
A spokesperson for the Middlesex Superior Court did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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