ICE Nearly Released 3 Convicted Child Sex Offenders After Confusion Over Biden's Memo

By Joshua Summers First Posted: Feb 14, 2021 10:53 PM EST

ICE’s Confusion over Biden’s “Release Them All” Memo, Almost Released Convicted Sex Offenders

(Photo : Alex Wong)
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks as he makes a statement at the South Court Auditorium at Eisenhower Executive Building February 10, 2021 in Washington, DC.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arranged and prepared the release of three convicted sex offenders in an apparent misapplication of the enforcement directives of President Joe Biden.

Fox News reported that the three men were convicted of sex offenses against children in Texas.

According to an ABC 6 report, Texas officials said the trio were not released after weeks of talks and discussions between the state prison system and the immigration authorities. However, they noted that the process of keeping the three men in custody heightened alarms that the ICE was declining to detain convicts, contrary to immigration laws and policies.

Jason Clark, chief of staff at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, noted that the ICE had dismissed "detainer" requests against 26 people in Texas in the past weeks.

ABC 6 reported that immigration authorities issue detainers to law enforcement agencies holding an individual who is conceivably in the U.S. illegally. ICE could seek to take them into immigration custody when a person in the country illegally completes their criminal sentence.

In a U.S. News report, Clark said that dropping the detainer is threatening public safety, and they already expressed that to ICE officials.

"Our concern is that you have individuals that have offenses in which we believe they would pose a public safety threat," he noted.

According to state records obtained by The Associated Press, most of the 26 were convicted of drug charges or drunken-driving offenses. Bu two were convicted of sexually assaulting a teen, and the other man was convicted of indecency with a child.

Fox News reported that individuals convicted of sex offenses against minors still qualify for enforcement under the Biden policies. It further said that the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) memorandum defines public safety threats as a person "who have been convicted of an aggravated felony."

Biden's Directive on Immigration Enforcement

Biden's new directive on immigration enforcement issued on his first day in office prompted the DHS to issue a memo directing immigration agencies to align their enforcement efforts on threats to national security and public safety and immigrants who entered the country illegally on or after Nov. 1.

Meanwhile, ICE confirmed with Fox News that it was holding Jose Lara-Lopez following his release from the Texas State Penitentiary, where he was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a minor pending disposition of the 41-year-old suspect's immigration proceeding.

However, ICE did not confirm whether they will drop the detainer for Lara-Lopez and two other convicts. Lara-Lopez, who pleaded guilty two years ago to sexually assaulting a teenager in Houston, should have been transferred to ICE custody, but instead might have been scheduled to be released.

The implementation of Biden's new guidance seems to be uneven, with immigration lawyers in other states reporting that ICE declined to release immigrants the lawyers believe should be allowed to go free.

The agency explained that it makes arrests and custody determinations on a case-by-case basis. ICE further stated that it also based them on the circumstances' totality and compliance with federal law and agency policy, Fox News reported.

ICE has already canceled an operation that targets illegal immigrants with sex crime convictions. According to former head of the agency Thomas Homan, an email was sent out to the field on Feb. 3, shutting down the national Operation Talon, which targets to arrest at-large illegal aliens with sex crime convictions, including child molestation.