A Massachusetts court released an illegal alien accused of heinous crimes despite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request.
Emilio Jose Pena-Casilla, a 46-year-old Dominican national, was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in January 2023 after he unlawfully entered the country in Eagle Pass, Texas, according to ICE.
'Massachusetts leaders are going above and beyond to protect some of the most violent predators.'
ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations enrolled him in its Alternatives to Detention program, which allowed him to be released into the U.S. on his own recognizance while he awaited removal proceedings. However, ERO terminated him from the program a month later.
In July 2024, the Dorchester District Court arraigned Pena-Casilla for "assault to rape, kidnapping, two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or older, and intimidating a witness/juror/police/court official," ICE reported.
ICE subsequently issued a detainer against Pena-Casilla, requesting that he remain held in the Nashua Street Jail for up to 48 hours to allow immigration officials time to transfer him to federal custody.
Pena-Casilla was released on bail with a GPS tracker the day after the detainer request was sent.
The Dorchester District Court dismissed the charges against Pena-Casilla after the Suffolk County Superior Court indicted him in September on the same lengthy list of alleged offenses.
Despite the ignoring of ICE's detainer request, federal agents successfully apprehended Pena-Casilla in Boston on December 17. He remains in federal custody.
Acting field office Director Patricia Hyde of ERO Boston stated, "Emilio Jose Pena-Casilla stands accused of some very serious offenses against a Massachusetts resident."
"We hold a sacred duty to protect the residents of our communities, and we will continue to do so by apprehending and removing egregious noncitizen offenders from our neighborhoods. Today, another victim in Massachusetts no longer needs to fear their predator," Hyde said.
ICE's announcement of the arrest comes after Governor Maura Healey (D) insisted that Massachusetts is "not a sanctuary state."
Sanctuary jurisdictions are typically defined as municipalities or states where local law enforcement officials ignore ICE detainer requests or refuse to cooperate with federal immigration agents.
"Detainers are critical public safety tools because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity. Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved — ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, the removable noncitizens, and the public — by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at large within the community," ICE stated.
Healey previously pledged to defy President-elect Donald Trump's mass deportation plans, claiming she would "absolutely not" allow Massachusetts state police to cooperate with the incoming president's efforts to remove illegal aliens. She went so far as to say she would use "every tool in the toolbox" to "protect" illegal immigrants residing in the right-to-shelter state.
However, in late December, Healey appeared to backpedal, stating that she supports deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes in the U.S. She said that local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies should coordinate to remove such threats from the community.
"I think what we need to do is work together here in Massachusetts to do both things: investigate, hold accountable, deport as necessary folks who are here unlawfully, who've engaged in criminal activity, absolutely, and also stand up for and protect the people who have been working here, going to school here, raising kids here, to ensure that they are not scared to go to the doctors or drop their kids off [at] school or go to work," Healey stated.
Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance told Blaze News, "Massachusetts leaders are going above and beyond to protect some of the most violent predators, at the expense of their own constituents."
"They do this to make a political statement, which is to the detriment of their own state," he continued. "These leaders don't want you to believe your own eyes, but you should. No one in power should be allowed to stay a day longer in their position after defending these types of dangerous predators."
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