This is one of those incredible stories that happen in so-called sanctuary jurisdictions where the rule of law and public safety are subordinated to making liberal Democrat politicians feel good about themselves even when citizens are murdered. Like so many other bizarre stories, this one takes place in Montgomery County, Maryland.
An 18-year-old Albert Einstein High School student charged with possessing a deadly weapon on school property was arrested by federal immigration enforcement agents Thursday and faces possible deportation, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mario Granados-Alvarado, a Wheaton resident who is from El Salvador, had been arrested May 1 in Kensington after allegedly driving a stolen car on school property. In the trunk of the car, police found an assault rifle that had been stolen from a City of Rockville police cruiser. Officers also discovered a second stolen car and a second stolen gun nearby.
Granados-Alvarado, whom police previously referred to as Mario Alvarado, was issued a $2,000 bond and released Wednesday, according to court documents. However, ICE had put out a detainer on him the day before and officers with the agency arrested him after his release, according to a press release publicized Monday.
Granados-Alvarado is being detained in the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, according to the ICE release.
If you were an 18-year-old US citizen and were caught in a stolen car with a stolen police “assault rifle” in the trunk on school property, what are the odds that you’d be released on $2,000 bond? I’d guess zero, but this follows a trend of prosecutors minimizing charges against illegals.
As you can see there are several moving parts here. The guy was originally detained crossing in from Mexico in 2014. Under Obama’s catch-and-release program he was given a summons to appear for a deportation hearing and simply ignored it. He was arrested. ICE asked Montgomery County authorities to hold him under a detainer but he was kicked free with a minuscule bond with unseemly haste given the gravity of the situation.
ICE is not particularly amused or impressed by what happened.
ICE arrests public safety threat after detainer not honored
BALTIMORE – An 18-year-old El Salvadoran national with multiple criminal arrests was taken into custody May 4 by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) after he was released on bond with an active ICE detainer in place. He is currently detained at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup, Maryland.
Mario Granados-Alvarado was released from local custody on May 3 despite immigration officials formally lodging a detainer with the Montgomery County Detention Center a day earlier. Montgomery County, Maryland, is listed as a jurisdiction that has publicly limited cooperation with ICE and frequently ignores legally authorized detainers.
“Keeping people safe means not tolerating the release of aliens that present a clear public safety threat back into our communities,” said Dorothy Herrera-Niles, field office director for ERO Baltimore. “ICE is committed to fostering positive collaboration with our local law-enforcement partners, and welcomes changes from county officials that would prioritize public safety.”
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ICE seeks cooperation from all its law enforcement partners to achieve the mutual goal of protecting public safety. ICE submits a detainer request to local law enforcement agencies so an alien in the custody of local law enforcement who is subject to removal from the United States can seamlessly be transferred to ICE custody within a 48-hour period of time. A transfer of custody that takes place inside the secure confines of a jail or prison is safer for everyone involved, including our officers and the person being arrested.
When a local law enforcement agency fails to honor an ICE detainer, individuals, who often have significant criminal histories, are released into the community, presenting a potential public safety threat. ICE officers then have to locate these criminal aliens in the community, which is highly resource intensive. It’s not uncommon for criminal alien targets to utilize multiple aliases and provide authorities with false addresses. Doing so, could needlessly put ICE personnel and innocent bystanders in harm’s way.
ICE rounded this guy up the next day and now, as you noticed, they’ve put him in a detention facility in Howard County, Maryland… which is not a sanctuary jurisdiction.
The situation in Maryland is only going to get worse because the Democrat Maryland Attorney General has warned Maryland law enforcement agencies to not cooperate with ICE:
Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh this week advised state and local law-enforcement agencies not to hold undocumented immigrants past their release dates on behalf of federal authorities unless they have a judicial warrant or probable cause.
He said in a memo Thursday that following his guidance would allow agencies to “comply with federal law in a manner that respects the constitutional rights of individuals, protects local agencies and officials from potential legal liability, and allows them to remain faithful to their mission of promoting public safety.”
Frosh (D) warned that state and local jails could be subject to legal challenges regarding unconstitutional detention if they hold individuals suspected of immigration violations past their release dates without a judicial warrant or probable cause.
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