An NC county released an illegal immigrant convicted of sex crimes against a child despite immigration detainer, ICE says

Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that an illegal alien sex offender was released back into the community after a local sheriff's office in North Carolina failed to honor a detainer request.

An ICE news release on Friday says that federal immigration officers arrested Furmencio Miranda-Cortazar, a 45-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, "during a targeted enforcement operation in Wake County" on Saturday. The arrest, ICE says, happened only after the Wake County Sheriff's Office refused to honor an ICE detainer following Miranda-Cortazar's conviction for sexual battery against a child.

North Carolina's sex offender database lists Miranda-Cortazar and says he was convicted of sexual battery against a 13-year-old on June 26 and released from custody the same day.

"Mr. Miranda-Cortazar was initially arrested in July 2018 for first-degree sex offense against a child and felony indecent liberties with a child less than 13 years of age," the release explains. "At the time, ICE identified Mr. Miranda-Cortazar through the Wake County 287g program, which has since been disbanded by the current sheriff, and lodged an immigration detainer against him."

The release adds that immigration officers arrested the Mexican national at a residence in Raleigh on Saturday.

Wake County's current sheriff, Gerald Baker, was elected last year and announced that the department would stop cooperating with ICE on immigration arrests in March. The department told WNCN-TV on Friday that they had "no comment" on the matter of Miranda-Cortazar.

“This is yet another example of a clear public safety threat being released into Wake County rather than into ICE custody due to the current sheriff’s policy on ICE non-cooperation,” said John Tsoukaris, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Atlanta interim field office director. “The Wake County sheriff’s continued decision to refuse cooperation with ICE serves as an open invitation to aliens who commit criminal offenses that Wake County is a safe haven for persons seeking to evade federal authorities, and residents of Wake County are less safe today than last year due these policies.”

The Tar Heel state has become somewhat a battleground when it comes to immigration enforcement lately. Earlier month, ICE reported that some 500 of its detainer requests had been ignored by local officials in less than a year.

Many of the headlines about sanctuary policies in North Carolina, however, have come out of Mecklenburg County, which contains the city of Charlotte.

In August, ICE announced that agents had arrested repeat immigration violator Oscar Pacheco-Leonardo, a 33-year-old Honduran national,  “during a targeted enforcement operation in Mecklenburg County.” The operation occurred “nearly two months after the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor an ICE detainer, or even notify ICE of the release, and instead released [Pacheco-Leonardo] from local criminal custody following his arrest on first-degree rape and indecent liberties with a minor charges,” the agency said.

Blaze Media later reported that the suspect had come over during the Obama administration and had previously destroyed his GPS ankle monitor, according to federal authorities.

In another case, a school district in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County area is facing a lawsuit from parents who say that their daughter was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an illegal immigrant who was allowed to serve as a school volunteer despite red flags on a background check.

At a hearing in Raleigh earlier this year, a Republican state representative called Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden and others in the state “sanctuary sheriffs” because of their immigrant detention policies.

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