U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien who was previously jailed for alleged rape and other criminal charges.
Jesus Romero-Bisos was released by the Philadelphia Police Department on October 17 even though ICE had placed an immigration detainer. Philadelphia police had arrested Romer-Bisos “or the criminal offenses of rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion, unlawful contact with a minor/sex offense, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault without consent, sexual assault, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, reckless endangerment of another person and harassment,” ICE reported.
Romero-Bisos was also charged “in a second scheme of criminal conduct with unlawful restraint with serious bodily injury, indecent assault without consent, simple assault and harassment.
Despite these charges and the immigration detainer, the Philadelphia police department released Romero-Bisos. The police department told The Daily Wire that all inquiries regarding Romero-Bisos’ release were being referred to the office of Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney. The mayor’s office did not immediately return a Daily Wire inquiry.
Three weeks later, on November 8, deportation officers with ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) found Romero-Bisos and arrested him. He is currently in ICE custody pending immigration proceedings.
“ICE is willing to work with local law enforcement at all times,” said ICE Philadelphia Field Office Director Simona Flores-Lund. “ICE shares the city’s ultimate objective to protect public safety and national security while simultaneously preserving the critical community-police bond. Unfortunately, elected officials are putting politics before the law, and most significantly before the safety of the communities they swore to serve.”
Philadelphia is a sanctuary city, meaning it won’t cooperate with federal immigration officials to deport illegal immigrants. As ICE explained, these policies put citizens at risk by allowing potentially dangerous individuals into the communities. The organization said that the lack of cooperation from local law enforcement increases “the likelihood that other individuals previously not targeted for arrest will be taken into ICE custody.”
This incident has occurred even though ICE field agents in Philadelphia arrested 45 illegal immigrants in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and West Virginia. As The Daily Wire previously reported, most of the illegal immigrants arrested had previous criminal histories, “including driving under the influence and sex-related crimes.”
“ERO deportation officers are committed to enforcing the immigration laws set forth by our legislators,” said Simona Flores-Lund, field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Philadelphia at the time of the arrests. “Targeted operations like this reflect the vital public service that ERO officers do every day to protect the nation, we will continue to conduct similar operations, while seeking to ultimately remove criminal aliens with a final order of removal and other immigration fugitives who pose a threat to public safety.”
Many of the illegal immigrants arrested by ICE at the time had been released from prison despite detainers requested by federal immigration officials.