Previously Deported Illegal Alien Arrested For Child Rape After Philly Ignores ICE Detainer

Brittany M. Hughes | August 8, 2018
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A previously deported illegal alien who went on to rape a child after Philadelphia law enforcement refused to honor his immigration detainer plead guilty this week to felony reentry after deportation -- not that it does any good for his underage victim.

According to the DOJ, Juan Ramon Vasquez, a Honduran citizen, was first deported back in 2009 after being caught living in the United States illegally. Sometime later he returned to the United States, where he was arrested in 2014 on charges of domestic aggravated assault and held by Philadelphia Department of Corrections. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued an immigration detainer requesting Vasquez be turned over to their custody after he’d served any jail time.

but Philadelphia, long known as a sanctuary city for criminal aliens, refused. The city dropped the charges and freed Vasquez without notifying ICE. 

“The City of Philadelphia thereafter chose not to comply with a detainer lodged by ICE for the defendant, who was instead released from custody by the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. After his release, the defendant was rearrested and convicted for rape of a child and unlawful sexual contact with a minor,” the Justice Department explained in a press release.

"The facts of this case highlight the danger posed by the City of Philadelphia's decision to disregard ICE detainers and release previously deported aliens from local custody," U.S. Attorney McSwain said in the statement. "Those of us in the law enforcement business should be doing everything in our power to protect vulnerable children from predators like Vasquez. Instead, this defendant received a free pass from the City of Philadelphia and its Department of Prisons, headed straight back into our community, and committed a heinous crime he never would have had the chance to commit had the City of Philadelphia complied with the ICE detainer."

Vasquez is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 20.

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