Immigration officials have prepared to release three men convicted in Texas for sex crimes against children in an apparent misapplication of President Joe Biden’s guidelines.
Biden issued a new immigration enforcement directive on his first day in office: According to the new memo, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) should focus their efforts on threats to national security, threats to public security and immigrants who have entered illegally in the US on or after November 1.
ICE withdrew requests for “detention” – which require state and local authorities to arrest a person who potentially entered the United States illegally – against 26 people as a result of the policy change, according to Jason Clark, chief of staff at the Department of Texas Criminal Justice.
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Most of the 26 were convicted of drugs or drunk driving, but two men were convicted of sexually assaulting a teenager and a third was convicted of indecency with a child.
People convicted of sex crimes against minors still qualify for enforcement under Biden’s policies, as the memo defines threats to public security as people “who have been convicted of an aggravated crime”.
ARCHIVE – In this April 22, 2020 photo, a car goes through a highway parallel to a fence in El Paso, Texas. (Photo AP / Cedar Attanasio, Archive)
((Photo AP / Cedar Attanasio, Archive))
The three were not released after discussions in recent weeks between the state prison system and immigration authorities. But the process of keeping them in custody raised the alarm that the ICE was refusing to detain convicts who violated immigration laws, officials said.
ICE confirmed to Fox News that it is detaining Jose Lara-Lopez, 41, after his release from the Texas State Penitentiary, where he was jailed for sexually assaulting a minor – pending the decision on his immigration process.
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The ICE “makes detentions and custody determinations on a case-by-case basis, based on the total circumstances and does so in accordance with federal law and agency policy,” the agency told Fox News in a statement.
The agency did not confirm whether or not it originally planned to hand over the detainee to Lara-Lopez or the other two convicts.
Governor Greg Abbott tweeted on February 5 that “Biden’s immigration policy is threatening security in Texas” after learning that Lara-Lopez should have been transferred to ICE custody, but instead may have been scheduled for be released.
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Lara-Lopez pleaded guilty two years ago in Houston to sexually assaulting a teenager.
The application of Biden’s new guidance appears to be uneven across the country, with immigration lawyers in other states reporting that the ICE has refused to release immigrants that lawyers believe they should be allowed to go free.
An officer from the ICE field office in Houston, who was involved in the Lara-Lopez case, wrote last month in an email sent to Fox News for the first time that agents should prevent all deportations and “release them” immediately”. This orientation was later withdrawn by a superior.
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Texas was successful with a restraining order that prevented the Biden government from imposing a 100-day moratorium on deportations, which was also part of the same January 20 memorandum.
District Judge Drew Tipton’s order did not prevent implementation of enforcement priorities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.