A court in Massachusetts released an illegal immigrant charged with assault, battery and rape, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said on Monday.
ICE nabbed the 35-year-old Guatemalan national in Lynn, Massachusetts, on Nov. 21 after local police had arrested him on Nov. 15 and the Lynn District Court defied a federal detainer on the accused by releasing him from custody, the agency said. Border Patrol had arrested the Guatemalan man twice in 2006 for illegally entering the country before he chose to be voluntarily removed to Mexico.
The Guatemalan national later reentered the country undetected at an unknown time, ICE said. ICE is seeking the individual’s removal pending the adjudication of his local criminal case.
“I’m very proud of our team of officers who made this arrest, which makes the residents of the community safer and more secure,” Enforcement and Removal Operations [ERO] Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons said in a statement regarding the arrest.
“ERO Boston is committed to seeking out and apprehending unlawfully present individuals who pose a serious threat to public safety. Those who violate U.S. immigration law and represent a public safety threat will be apprehended and will face removal,” Lyons said. “ERO Boston is strongly committed to this part of our mission; we will continue to seek to achieve it every day.”
ICE arrested 46,396 noncitizens with criminal histories in fiscal year 2022.
In fiscal year 2020, 90% of the roughly 103,000 ICE administrative arrests involved illegal aliens with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.
Jennie Taer on November 28, 2023
