Police in California have ignored a detainer order from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This time, the person they released is a convicted child murderer.
ICE issued the detainer order on Carlos Morales-Ramirez, a 44-year-old from Salvador. Morales-Ramirez was convicted of “second-degree murder, assault on a child causing death, and great bodily injury to a child causing death” in 1998.
Morales-Ramirez was still serving time for the crime at the California Department of Corrections in Pleasant Valley Prison in Chowchilla, California.
ICE issued the immigration detainer order on him in 2013. However, the state of California did not uphold that request. Morales-Ramirez was released back onto the streets on December 4, 2020.
ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations in Los Angeles located and arrested Morales-Ramirez on December 10. They served him with a Notice to Appear as part of the Immigration and Nationality Act, since Morales-Ramirez’s conviction for child murder qualifies him to be removed from the country. He is currently in ICE custody.
ICE places immigration detainers “on individuals who have been arrested on local criminal charges and who are amenable to removal, so that the agency can take custody of that individual when they released from local custody within secure confines,” ICE said in a press release.
California failed to honor that order. In doing so, they allowed a dangerous criminal onto the streets. The order was ignored because many cities in California are “Sanctuary Cities,” which refuse to follow federal immigration law by turning over illegal immigrants.
“State sanctuary laws grant law enforcement officials the discretion to cooperate with immigration authorities in instances where serious or violent crimes have been committed; again, we are talking about the murder of a child – rather than working with our officers to ensure this convicted aggravated felon was safely handed over to ICE, he was released back into the community and our officers were forced to exhaust more time and resources relocating and re-arresting him,” said ICE’s ERO Los Angeles Field Office Director Dave Marin.
“California’s sanctuary policies continue to fail residents by allowing convicted criminals like Morales-Ramirez to walk free – state officials and advocates need to take a hard look at the reality, and potential consequences, of these misguided laws that leave potential victims wildly unprotected from very egregious criminal offenders,” he continued.
The press release also pointed out Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia, who had a history of criminal convictions, including “battery of a spouse, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, battery of an officer, and vandalism.”
Despite this long list of violent acts, the Santa Clara County Jail ignored an ICE immigration detainer and released Lopez-Garcia back onto the street, where he killed two people.
Need to get rid of Newsom and those that protect illegals 🚫 especially those like murders of a child. Democrats need to get their heads on straight…lose the ego of srlf assigned power
Prison is for law breakers and that includes politicians that dont follow but break the laws
Sanctuary cities for criminals – to the disregard of Federal law? This could be the argument for states to create sanctuary cities for the unborn children – who are not criminals.
The biggest problem I see here is that California, and other states that have passed so called “sanctuary laws” are in flagrant violation of federal law. The states do not have the right to ignore federal immigration law just because they disagree with it. Any state that has passed one of these unconstitutional laws should be denied federal funding until they decide that they are still actually a part of this great Republic and not individual countries. If Californication wants to secede, then they can see how long they last on their own. I guess would be less than 5 years. Until then, they are still REQUIRED to follow federal immigration law, regardless of what they say.
I agree 1000%with you,BUT why stop there? There is always a paper trail in these types of governmental actions,right? So follow the paper trails and file felony charges against the persons responsible AND allow civil suits to be filed against them for wrongful death(s)!! That should be a good incentive for politicians on every level to seriously consider THEIR motives and actions!
This is why we need to fight to keep our second amendment rights. Can’t count on our government in certain states to protect our good people.
It’s just plain criminal that a city or a state can put these kinds of criminals back on the streets, where they very often offend again. The mayors and governors who let these criminals out of jail and back on the streets should be held partially responsible for any harm or crimes they may commit, once allowed back outside. To me, it sounds like aiding and abetting a criminal and the penalty should include some punishment for the dirty deeds done. Maybe a little jail time, or at least allowing the family of the criminal’s new victims an opportunity to sue the crap out of these ignorant politicians.