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The Justice Department unloaded Thursday on a New York county after authorities say it released a “violent illegal alien” back into the community, defying a federal criminal arrest warrant signed by a magistrate judge.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office released Jesus Romero-Hernandez, 27, after he finished a local sentence for assault.
But the feds had an active warrant seeking to take custody of Mr. Romero-Hernandez for illegally entering the U.S. after deportation, which is a felony crime.
Sanctuary communities will usually decline to cooperate with an immigration warrant, which is a civil matter, but generally say they will cooperate with a criminal warrant.
Mr. Bove said the county’s release meant that federal officers had to track Mr. Romero-Hernandez down in the community.
“Yesterday, despite the warrant, a defendant with no legal status and a history of violence was released into the community,” he said. “Federal agents risked their safety and pursued the defendant in unsafe conditions. Today, they were successful in recapturing the defendant.”
The Washington Times has sought comment from the sheriff’s office.
Mr. Romero-Hernandez was charged with the federal crime of illegal reentry in January 2024.
At that time he was already in custody of the sheriff’s office.
Federal officers provided the criminal arrest warrant to the sheriff’s office, the Justice Department said.
The local case was resolved Wednesday with a sentence of time served and Mr. Romero-Hernandez was released rather than turned over to Homeland Security for action.
According to documents in the federal criminal case, Mr. Romero-Hernandez was deported five times in the summer of 2016.
It is not clear from the documents when he snuck back in, but federal officials discovered him when the Tompkins sheriff’s office held custody.