ICE arrests 3 at-large criminal aliens released from local custody

I.C.E. News Releases

ENFORCEMENT AND REMOVAL

08/26/2016

ICE arrests 3 at-large criminal aliens released from local custody after detainers were not honored

Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) have arrested three at-large criminal aliens after they were released from local custody when detainers lodged with Philadelphia authorities were not honored. The men have previous convictions for crimes including DUI, aggravated assault, weapons offenses and narcotics manufacturing.

The three men arrested were:

• Marco Arturo Juarez-Ramos, 27, a Mexican national, has a prior DUI conviction and was released from local custody Aug. 18 after posting bail following an Aug. 15 arrest on local charges. He was arrested by ICE in Philadelphia Aug. 24 and will remain in ICE custody pending his removal of the United States.
• Elvis Velasquez-Roblero, 36, a Mexican national, has prior convictions for aggravated assault and weapons offenses. He was released from local custody following an Aug. 3 arrest on local charges. He was arrested by ICE in Philadelphia Aug. 18 and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
• Fabio Dalloco, 46, an Italian national, has a prior conviction for cocaine delivery and manufacturing. He was released from local custody following a June 6 arrest on local charges. He was arrested by ICE in Philadelphia Aug. 16 and will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.

“At-large criminal alien arrests are among the most dangerous type of enforcement actions ICE officers are engaged in on a daily basis. These arrests also represent the greatest risk to the community,” said Thomas Decker, ERO Philadelphia field office director. “This level of risk can be mitigated in many instances. ICE welcomes changes to the Mayor's executive order that would allow the city to cooperate with ICE toward achieving the shared goal of protecting public safety and national security while balancing important community policing needs."

ICE is committed to focusing on smart, effective immigration enforcement. With the implementation of the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) more than a year ago, many law enforcement agencies that had previously declined to cooperate with ICE, including some large jurisdictions, are now once again working with the agency. Through PEP, DHS continues to make significant strides in building partnerships with local law enforcement and community leaders to ensure a common-sense approach that focuses enforcement resources on convicted criminals and individuals who threaten public safety or national security.

In fiscal 2015, ICE removed or returned 235,413 individuals.

Of this total, 165,935 were apprehended while, or shortly after, attempting to illegally enter the United States. The remaining 69,478 were apprehended in the interior of the United States, and the vast majority were convicted criminals who fell within ICE's civil immigration enforcement priorities.

98 percent of ICE's fiscal 2015 removals and returns fell into one or more of ICE's civil immigration enforcement priorities, with 86 percent falling in Priority 1 and 8 percent in Priority 2.

In addition, ICE's interior enforcement activities led to an increase in the percentage of interior removals that were convicted criminals, growing from 82 percent in fiscal 2013 to 91 percent in 2015.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ic...iners-were-not

Three rearrested by ICE after local authorities fail to honor detainers


Started by European Knight, 08-28-2016

Philadelphia (a “sanctuary city”) now has a deportation hotline for illegal immigrants

May 31, 2016 by Jazz Shaw
http://media.hotair.com/wp/wp-conten...ibertyBell.jpg

Philadelphia is the home of the Liberty Bell, and the symbolism of that icon now apparently includes the liberty to break the law with impunity, as well as the support of the local clergy and City Hall.

When incoming Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney took over City Hall from the more appropriately named Michael Nutter this year, he got to work quickly. One of his first actions was to firmly establish (or perhaps reestablish) the status of the City of Brotherly Love as a “sanctuary city” where city law enforcement would be forbidden from working with ICE to facilitate the deportation of illegal aliens. (Philly.com)

Kenney said Johnson will send ICE representatives to Philadelphia to brief immigration stakeholders on the new program and try to explain why it does not have the shortcomings of Secure Communities.

“But until that happens,” he said, “we are going back to our old situation,” which, between April 2014 and late last month, barred police and prison officials from telling ICE agents about an undocumented prisoner’s pending release unless the person was convicted of a violent felony and ICE’s request was supported by a warrant.

So Philadelphia has lined up shoulder to shoulder with San Francisco as a home for lawlessness. But even if the cops are barred from working with ICE to remove criminals from the community, ICE can still come in and deport people.

(And they do.) So what’s an “undocumented American in waiting” to do if the feds come knocking at their door?

Good news! Several members of the local clergy have established a hotline that anyone can call to alert the community support network when ICE is seen prowling the streets or simply doing their jobs. (Washington Post)

Visitation BVM, a multi-ethnic church in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, is a place where each Sunday, multiple Masses are held.

There are three in Spanish, one in English and one in Vietnamese. The church is also one of 19 member congregations in the New Sanctuaries Movement. (More information below.) When Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in January plans for mass immigration raids, New Sanctuary members and staff set up the emergency hotline and “Know Your Rights” training sessions for undocumented immigrants.

That’s anathema to some. But, when people living in the United States are detained and the most common result is deportation, a number of matters often require attention. A share of undocumented immigrants live in mixed-status households. So contact needs to be made with legal immigrant and U.S. citizen spouses and children; any plans to reconnect in another country organized; property or businesses sold, medications obtained and child-custody matters sorted.

On the surface, that rather benign description doesn’t sound like a bad thing at all. Legal resident families can no doubt run into problems when an illegal family member is captured and deported and could probably benefit from some help with legal questions, paying the bills and other necessities. Rather than yet another government program, getting the local faith community involved is no doubt a helpful approach. But there’s far more to this than just family support for legal residents impacted by the deportation of illegal relatives.

The “hotline” in question is being used to rush people to the scene of ongoing or imminent deportations. Aside from the fact that crowding the area when law enforcement is trying to apprehend a criminal is just a bad idea to begin with, they want to “bear witness” to the deportation. This simply serves to stir up the community against law enforcement, rather than in support of it.

Further, they are encouraging calls when someone, “sees ICE on their street.” This isn’t a support activity for legal family members. It’s a tool to tip off everyone in a specific community that law enforcement officers may be on the way, allowing them time to hide or sneak away. That’s a direct effort to obstruct justice and should be punishable by law.

The fact that this “network” can openly promote such activities with the blessing of City Hall shows that Philadelphia is now right up there with San Francisco in terms of lawlessness and a disregard for the safety of the legal residents and citizens of the city. And much like their soul sisters on the west coast, Congress should move to shut down any and all federal funding to Philadelphia until they are willing to comply with the law and uphold their duty to protect the people living there.

Philly has already experienced their share of violent crime courtesy of illegal immigrant felons, including the rape of one local woman by an illegal who had been twice deported. Let’s hope they don’t wind up having to bury their own version of Kate Steinle before the residents wake up to what’s going on here.

(not mentioned is the knife killing of a woman by an illegal ecuadoran in a restaurant kitchen. He took off in his suv - has a license, owns a vehicle & an illegal - has not been found to date. And of course many other crimes by illegals as they roam freely amongst the citizens)

http://hotair.com/archives/2016/05/3...al-immigrants/

Published : September 8, 2016

Feds blast Philly’s sanctuary city policy for releasing convicted predator

• Sam Newhouse

The city released a man convicted of indecent exposure to minors after he had served his sentence, rather than transferring him to immigration authorities.

Federal authorities criticized Philadephia's "sanctuary city" polices on Thurday after announcing that they nabbed an undocumented immigrant who was convicted of a sex crime and released after serving his prison term.

Milton Berrera-Lopez, 29, of Guatemala, was apprehended a week after being released from “local custody” on Aug. 30, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said.

Berrera-Lopez was released after spending about two years in custody for two counts of indecent exposure involving minors. Berrera-Lopez was convicted on Aug. 30, and was sentenced to two years in prison, two years’ probation and forbidden from contacting minors. Since he already served the time, he was released.

RELATED: State rep.: I was 'ambushed' by immigration activists

ICE filed a detainer to request a Philly city jail hold on Berrera-Lopez so they could take him into custody for violating U.S. immigration law, but the jail released him, ICE said.

Federal agents arrested Berrera-Lopez later that same day when he went to report to his probation officer at a center in Montgomery County, and is now in federal custody pending deportation proceedings, ICE said.

In a news release announcing the arrest, an ICE official called out Philly’s sanctuary city policy, stating that it is “creating a potentially unsafe environment for the city’s residents."
“When convicted criminal aliens who pose a threat to children are released into communities instead of being safely transferred to ICE custody in a secure environment, our communities are exposed to an unnecessary risk,” said Thomas Decker, director of ICE’s Philadelphia Enforcement and Removal Operations in a statement.

He went on to urge the city to change it’s policy. “This level of risk can be mitigated in many instances … the agency welcomes significant modifications to the current policy which is creating a potentially unsafe environment for the city’s residents."

But Mayor Jim Kenney's spokeswoman Lauren Hitt rejected that criticism.

"It’s completely inaccurate to say our policies put Philadelphia in danger. It’s just the opposite," Hitt said via email. "By not making our police and prisons do ICE’s job for them, we have stronger relationships with our immigrant communities. In cities without sanctuary city policies, immigrants are often too scared to report crimes or act as witnesses in criminal cases."

ICE issues detainer “holds” to local law enforcement when they have a person in custody whose immigration status is in question. ICE asks that the person be held until federal agents can take them into custody.

RELATED: Toomey beats anti-sanctuary city drum as re-election campaign heats up

Philadelphia rejected cooperating with these “holds” and adopted a “sanctuary city” policy in 2014 when Mayor Michael Nutter signed an executive order ending city-ICE cooperation.

The sanctuary city policy has been strongly defended by Mayor Kenney, even as it has earned him plenty of heat, including from politicians around the state and in Washington D.C.

U.S. Sen Pat Toomey (R-Pennsylvania), who is running to keep his seat against Democratic challenger Kate McGinty, said the Berrera-Lopez case proves her wrong in her
support for Philly’s sanctuary city policies.

"The constant failure of these sanctuary city policies only underscores how out of touch Katie McGinty's extreme liberal agenda is with Pennsylvania families and communities,” Toomey for Senate spokesman Ted Kwong said in a statement.

Hitt said that Philly authorities would cooperate if ICE presented a warrant for the person they are seeking, and noted that ultimately, ICE was able to arrest Berrera-Lopez on their own.

"This arrest is proof that ICE doesn’t need to rely on our prison system to do their job," Hitt said. "They clearly have other tools in their arsenal to go after individuals they seek."

ICE said it removed or returned 235,413 individuals in 2015, 98 percent of whom were "priority" cases, with 86 percent of those people falling into “Priority 1,” which denotes “aliens who pose a danger to national security or a risk to public safety,” such as violent criminals, felons, repeat offenders, criminals subject to outstanding warrants and gang members.

http://www.metro.us/philadelphia/fed...-ABthX0WGvbvk/