Federal immigration authorities arrested an illegal migrant charged with child rape just months after his prison sentence for strangulation was dramatically reduced by local authorities.
Warley Neto, a 24-year-old Brazilian national living unlawfully in the United States, was arrested by deportation officers in Dukes County, Massachusetts, last month, according to a press release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Brazilian national is an alleged sex offender currently charged with five counts of rape against a Massachusetts minor.
“Warley Neto allegedly repeatedly assaulted a Massachusetts child and represents a significant threat to the safety of our neighborhoods,” Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons said in a Tuesday statement. “ERO Boston will continue to apprehend and remove the most egregious noncitizen offenders from New England.”
Neto illegally crossed into the U.S. near Paso Del Norte, Texas, in March 2018, according to ICE. He was subsequently served a notice to appear before an immigration judge and released from custody later that month.
ICE lodged an immigration detainer for Neto in January after he was arrested by the Tisbury Police Department on a warrant related to five counts of child rape and five counts of enticing a minor, according to the agency. Those criminal charges were moved to the Duke County Superior Court, and ICE officials subsequently lodged a detainer for Neto with the court and the Dukes County Jail in August.
The Dukes County Sheriff’s Office honored ICE’s detainer request and allowed deportation officers to assume custody of Neto on Aug. 23, the press release confirmed.
“We are grateful for the cooperation of the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office for prioritizing public safety and allowing Neto’s safe transfer of custody to ERO,” Lyons stated. “Too often local jurisdictions refuse to honor immigration detainers and release dangerous offenders back into the community to reoffend.”
ICE had first lodged an immigration detainer for Neto with the Dukes County Jail in February 2023 after the Edgartown Police Department arrested him for “strangulation or suffocation, assault and battery on a family household member, and threat to commit crime,” according to the agency. However, after finding him guilty in June 2023 of those charges, the Edgartown District Court suspended all but 90 days of his 364 day prison sentence.
Massachusetts is identified as a “sanctuary” state by the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for tougher immigration enforcement and track sanctuary laws across the country. The group cites a supreme judicial court decision in July 2017 that largely prohibits local authorities from honoring ICE detainers — which are requests by the agency for local or state authorities to hold onto a noncitizen in their custody long enough for a deportation officer to arrive and make an apprehension.
ICE and Massachusetts authorities have butted heads over the issue of cooperation in the past, with an incident occurring last month when deportation officers arrested a Haitian illegal migrant who was charged with raping a disabled child and released back into the community after local authorities ignored a detainer.
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