An illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was convicted for sex crimes against a minor in Maryland was released without serving jail time, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The agency announced on Monday that deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) of Baltimore arrested Raul Calderon-Interiano, 25, who was convicted in April.
Mr. Calderon-Interiano was sentenced to six years in prison followed by five years probation in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, but a judge suspended his sentence and released him back into the public, despite Mr. Calderon-Interiano’s conviction of sex offense in the fourth degree and assault in the second degree, ICE stated.
The judge required him to register as a Tier 1 sex offender.
ICE had issued a detainer on Mr. Calderon-Interiano, but officials at Baltimore County Detention Center ignored the request, the federal agency said.
ERO Baltimore’s Fugitive Operations Team arrested Mr. Calderon-Interiano near his residence in Baltimore on May 29. He is now in ICE custody pending his removal from the United States.
“Raul Calderon-Interiano was convicted of sex crimes against a local child and posed a significant threat to other Maryland children,” said Matthew Elliston, ERO Baltimore’s acting field office director, in a press release.
“We will not tolerate the residents of our communities to be victimized by unlawfully present sex offenders,” Mr. Elliston said. “The women and men of ERO Baltimore will continue to prioritize the safety of our public by aggressively arresting and removing noncitizen predators from our neighborhoods.”
The network reported that Baltimore County ignored 70 percent of ICE detainer requests submitted between October 2022 and September 2023, according to ICE records.
Sanctuary Jurisdictions
U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) commented on the situation in an email to The Epoch Times.“Violent crimes committed by illegal aliens as well as MS-13 gangs are growing threats in Maryland because Maryland law allows places like Montgomery County and Baltimore County to harbor illegal aliens as ’sanctuary jurisdictions,'” he said.
“No family should have to suffer the horror of their children being raped—let alone by violent criminals who should have been deported. 1.3 million illegal aliens have outstanding deportation orders not being enforced by the Biden Administration,” Mr. Harris said. “The Biden Administration owes justice to the victims whose lives have been terrorized by the violent crimes allowed in ’sanctuary jurisdictions.'”
ERO issues immigration detainers against illegal immigrants who are arrested for criminal activity and who are in custody of either state or local law enforcement. ICE requests that law enforcement notify them before a noncitizen is released from custody.
“Detainers are critical public safety tools because they focus enforcement resources on removable noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity,” ICE said in a press release. “Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved—ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, 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.”
According to ICE, detainers also minimize the chances that the criminal noncitizen will reoffend as they are transferred to ERO custody.
Mr. Calderon-Interiano was first encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol in 2014 as an unaccompanied minor near Laredo, Texas, after he illegally entered the United States, ICE said.
Three days later, Mr. Calderon-Interiano was transferred into the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in San Antonio. From there, the ORR released him into the custody of a sponsor who lived in Maryland in November 2014.
On Oct. 8, 2015, an immigration judge in Baltimore ordered Mr. Calderon-Interiano removed from the United States to Guatemala, in absentia. He was then arrested in January 2023 for sex crimes against a minor.
