A liberal Maryland county released a violent illegal immigrant from jail early despite a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency said Friday.
Immigration agents captured Honduran man Rafael Aguilar on Jan. 13 following his release in Prince George’s County on a suspended sentence for stabbing someone in the back in April 2025, according to court records and an ICE statement. Democrat-appointed Judge Todd Steuart sentenced Aguilar to ten years in prison for assault, but freed him after 141 days with a chance to have the full sentence waived if he complied with temporary release conditions.
“Quite frankly, we did, in fact, call ICE and tell them that we had him, and we held him for 2.5 hours, but they didn’t come,” a county spokesperson told the DCNF. “We certainly always respond to a legitimate warrant, but when the judge tells us that, you know, somebody needs to be let go … it’s just not possible for us to just hold someone forever.”
County policy would have required a criminal warrant to hold Aguilar in jail longer, ABC7 reported.
“When sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to honor ICE immigration detainers for egregious criminal illegal aliens, they are knowingly endangering the public,” ICE Baltimore acting Field Office Director Vernon Liggins said. “By releasing Aguilar instead of cooperating with federal law enforcement, local officials in Prince George’s County chose politics over public safety.”
Aguliar is now being held in ICE’s Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana for potential deportation, according to the agency’s inmate database. Aguilar was released from a Maryland jail on Jan. 6, months after ICE asked Prince George’s County to hold him in August, the agency said.
Nine local law enforcement agencies in Maryland have signed contracts allowing cooperation with ICE on various enforcement tasks, the DCNF previously reported. Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who appointed the judge in Aguilar’s case, said on Friday that he will sign a bill banning such agreements after it passed the Democrat-controlled state legislature.
“These reckless policies fail the law-abiding residents who expect their communities to be kept safe,” Liggins said. “ICE will continue to step in and do the job sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to do.”
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