Federal immigration authorities on Thursday accused Massachusetts officials of ignoring another detainer on an illegal migrant gang member as rhetoric heats up between the state’s leaders and President-elect Donald Trump’s team.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer for Jose Luis Castro Jovel, a 24-year-old Salvadoran national and confirmed MS-13 gang member, after he was arrested in January on assault and battery charges, the agency stated in a press release. However, the district court which had custody of him did not honor the request, allowing the gang member to again roam free in the community.
“ERO Boston is committed to keeping our communities safe, and we do that in partnership with local law enforcement,” “ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia Hyde said in a statement. “But the bottom line is that immigration detainers are public safety tools.”
“We use [detainer requests] to keep potentially dangerous noncitizens off our streets, and when officials don’t honor them, it puts our friends, families and neighbors at risk,” Hyde continued.
Jose Luis Castro Jovel. Image courtesy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Castro entered the United States at an unknown time and unknown location, making him a “gotaway” illegal migrant that evaded Border Patrol apprehension, according to ICE. An immigration judge in March 2023 ordered him to be removed from the country, but he remained.
Police in Northampton, Massachusetts, arrested him on Jan. 26 for assault and battery of a household or family member, according to the agency. ICE officials lodged a detainer for Castro with the Northampton District Court, but the court released him on Feb. 12 without notifying the agency.
ICE was ultimately able to apprehend the illegal migrant without local cooperation, with the agency confirming their deportation officers caught Castro on a public roadway in Northampton on Nov. 12.
A spokesperson for the Northampton District Court did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
News of an ignored detainer comes as Trump’s incoming administration, which has vowed to embark on a massive deportation operation, is increasingly sparring with Massachusetts Democrats.
When asked shortly after Trump’s election victory, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said she would “absolutely not” be assisting the administration with its mass deportation plans, despite her own government’s headaches with the enormous flow of illegal migrants into the state. Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu declared that she would protect migrants in “every possible way” from the president-elect’s deportation agenda, according to the Boston Herald.
In response to the mayor’s comments, former ICE acting director Tom Homan — who will serve as Trump’s border czar — called Wu “not very smart” and encouraged her to educate herself on federal immigration law.
Deportation officers working out of ICE’s Boston field office have continued to rack up major apprehensions since the governor’s and mayor’s comments. The agency this month announced the arrest of three different illegal migrants living in Massachusetts who were charged or convicted of raping children.
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