The State of California honored an immigration detainer placed on a previously deported violent Mexican national. The criminal alien returned to the U.S. after being deported in 1999 and received a conviction for voluntary manslaughter in 2003.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers lodged an immigration detainer on 44-year-old Luis Gonzalez-Valencia, a Mexican national and confirmed gang member. California authorities honored the detainer and turned the prisoner over to ERO officers at the Calipatria State Prison. ERO officers verified the criminal alien’s identity and placed him in custody for removal proceedings.

“We are grateful for the cooperation of the California State Department of Corrections honoring the lodged detainer for this violent felon; however, ICE continues to be challenged by California’s protection of the criminal alien populations within their correctional system, San Diego Deputy Field Office Director Jamison Matuszewski said in a written statement. “These challenges are further enhanced when California’s legislative body devalues criminal convictions specifically inhibiting federal immigration entities from using those convictions for removal or federal prosecution.”

A California court convicted Gonzalez-Valencia in 2003 for involuntary manslaughter. The court handed down an 11-year prison sentence which he served at the Calipatria State Prison. ICE records show the criminal alien had a prior deportation in 1999 after two burglary convictions in 1994 and 1996. He returned to the U.S. illegal sometime after his 1999 deportation and later killed someone resulting in the conviction for voluntary manslaughter.

ERO officers took Gonzalez-Valencia into custody on November 22 and immediately reinstated his order of removal at the ERO office in El Centro, California. Officers removed him to Mexico that same day.