ICE seeks to deport child sex offender
Federal immigration officials last week arrested an undocumented Guatemalan man in Gloucester who had been released from state custody on probation after being convicted of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, officials said.
The 34-year-old man, identified in court documents as Wilmer Lopez, was arrested Feb. 21 by deportation officers from Enforcement and Removal Operations, a division of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said in a statement Tuesday.
“This individual represented a dire threat to the residents of Massachusetts,” said Todd M. Lyons, director of ERO’s Boston field office. “Unlawfully present, convicted sex offenders should not be given the opportunity to reoffend. The victim of his crimes deserves better from our justice system.”
Lopez, who entered the United States without authorization in April 2011, pleaded guilty last month in Gloucester District Court to a charge of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of 14 and a separate charge of assault and battery, according to court records and federal officials.
He was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to have no contact with his victim, to wear an alcohol monitoring device for six months, and to register as a sex offender, records show.
Federal officials issued an immigration detainer against Lopez after learning he was being held at the Essex County Jail and House of Correction following his arrest in December, officials said.
After his guilty plea, Lopez was ordered by the court to provide his information to the state sex offender registry and was released “back into the community,” officials said.
“The unlawfully present Guatemalan national had been released by the Gloucester District Court, despite ERO Boston having filed an immigration detainer against him,” officials said.
Essex Sheriff Kevin Coppinger, who oversees the Essex County Jail and House of Correction, said that on Jan. 19, his staff put Lopez in a van and took him to court, where they turned him over to court officers, along with a copy of the ICE detainer. It was the court’s decision to release the man, he said.
“That has been confirmed by the court, that they did receive the paperwork back on that date,” Coppinger said. “After that, we’re kind of out of the picture.”
The state Trial Court’s policies do not require court officers to hold a person based on a civil immigration detainer — in fact, the rules forbid it, according to a copy of the policies obtained by the Globe.
“Trial Court employees shall not hold any individual who would otherwise be entitled to release based solely on a civil immigration detainer or civil immigration warrant,” the document states. “Trial Court employees do not have authority to detain an individual based solely on a civil immigration detainer. Nor do Trial Court employees have the authority to comply with a civil warrant issued by a [Department of Homeland Security] official for the arrest of an individual based solely on a civil immigration violation.”
The Essex district attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter.
Lopez will remain in federal custody awaiting a hearing before a judge from the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, officials said. He was arrested as part of ICE’s latest enforcement effort, which arrested about 275 undocumented sex offenders between Feb. 5 and Feb. 16, the agency said.