Posted: Aug 15, 2013 4:47 PM PST Updated: Aug 16, 2013 12:31 PM PST
wtrf.com

ST. CLAIRSVILLE -

A police matter in Belmont County that started out simply has ended up complicated.

A local business manager fired an employee, and, afraid there was going to be a fight, called the sheriff's department for help, and they arrived. It turns out the fired man didn't cause any trouble himself, but his immigration status is causing lots of trouble.

The sheriff says the suspect is a Spanish speaking man from Guatemala.

Sheriff Dave Lucas said Chica Valeriano J. Perez had a fake ID and a fake Social Security card, so they called Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and ICE said they wanted him. Then, after speaking with an interpreter, Perez said he was not 20 after all, he's only 17. Now, ICE doesn't want him, and the sheriff has a prisoner he doesn't know what to do with.

"So now we're at a Catch 22," Lucas said. "We have this person with falsified identification and a falsified Social Security card. We don't know what to do. We're going to try to do our best and find out what to do with this person. But right now I've got calls in to people higher up to see what I can find, where we can go. I mean this is a problem," Lucas said.

Sheriff Lucas has a call in to the local Homeland Security liaison to get their advice. He says the man may or may not be a juvenile, and that he may have lied to the interpreter. In the meantime, the illegal alien has been transferred to the Sargus Juvenile Center.

The sheriff says his department gets calls about illegals all the time, but says once you catch them, you end up releasing them.

http://www.wtrf.com/story/23151524/c...ease-immigrant