Philadelphia authorities ignored federal immigration detainers and released three dangerous criminal aliens previously convicted of crimes, including one person who’d been arrested for “terroristic threats.” All three of the individuals had prior convictions.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement stated in a press release they have since arrested all three aliens, but only after Philadelphia law enforcement intentionally failed to comply with federal immigration requests to hold the criminals for immigration processing.
According to ICE, 27-year-old Marco Arturo Juarez-Ramos, a Mexican national, already had a prior DUI conviction before his most current arrest on Aug. 15. He posted bail on Aug. 18 and was released after authorities ignored an ICE detainer.
According to a local report, Juarez-Ramos' most recent charges included “possessing instruments of a crime, terroristic threats, simple assault, and recklessly endangering another person.” ICE agents managed to track him down and arrest him on Aug. 24 and plan to remove him from the country.
ICE also picked up another Mexican national, 36-year-old Elvis Velasquez-Roblero, who already had prior convictions for aggravated assault and weapons offenses. He was arrested on local charges on Aug. 3 and was later released despite an ICE detainer.
Fabio Dalloco, 46, an Italian national, was arrested last June after customs officials found 14 pounds of cocaine in his luggage at the Philadelphia International Airport. But despite having been apprehended at a port of entry with an obscene amount of hard drugs, Philadelphia still released him into the country immediately after he was found guilty.
“He was sentenced to 11-and-a-half-to-23 months in prison, but received credit for time served and was immediately paroled after his guilty plea, court records show,” the local report stated. ICE arrested Dalloco on Aug. 16.
A so-called “sanctuary city” since 2014, Philadelphia has a reputation for not cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
The Department of Justice recently issued guidelines stating that they would refuse federally-funded law enforcement grants to cities and localities with laws on the books that interfere with requests for immigration information from federal authorities. However, nothing in the DOJ’s guidance denies funding to cities that deliberately fail to acknowledge a federal immigration detainer.
The Philly Voice reported in July that Philadelphia is slated to get about $1.68 million in federal taxpayer funding this year through the federal government’s Justice Assistance Grant and other programs. The city has already received $8.6 million since 2012 through DOJ programs.