U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials report that as many as 25 criminal aliens could be released from a sanctuary county jail in North Carolina. This list includes 11 migrants charged with sexual offenses against children.

ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers released a Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions Report on November 1 revealing 25 criminal aliens who are currently incarcerated in the Wake County, North Carolina, jail and who could be released by sanctuary county officials despite immigration detainers being issued. The report includes incarcerated migrants with charges of murder, sexual assault, sexual assault of children, drug trafficking, assault, and armed robbery.

The Wake County jail has a history of releasing criminal aliens with immigration detainers. ICE officials “repeatedly asked local jurisdictions to reconsider non-cooperation policies because those policies put politics before public safety.”

“The only way a person is subject to an ICE detainer in Wake County is if they are handcuffed and arrested for a crime committed in the local community,” said acting ICE Director Matt Albence. “These misguided policies protect criminals, not the immigrant communities they were created to protect.”

Here is an example of a foreign national with an active ICE detainer who has been detained for serious criminal offenses in NC’s Wake County. The only way a person is subject to an ICE detainer is if they are handcuffed & arrested for a crime committed in the local community. pic.twitter.com/2EH9Ayl4Z3 — ICE (@ICEgov) November 1, 2019

“When local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement, they not only betray their duty to protect public safety but force ICE to be more visible in those areas,” ICE officials tweeted on Friday.

Here is an example of a foreign national with an active ICE detainer who has been detained for serious criminal offenses in NC’s Wake County. The only way a person is subject to an ICE detainer is if they are handcuffed & arrested for a crime committed in the local community. pic.twitter.com/dHsva1qXr4 — ICE (@ICEgov) November 1, 2019

The 25 incarcerated migrants in the Wake County Jail include:

Four charged with murder,

11 charged with sexual crimes against children,

Six charged with drug trafficking,

Three charged with robbery and/or assault with a deadly weapon,

One charged with 1st-degree sex offense by force/false imprisonment, and

One charged with assault on a female

These cases have all been identified by ICE to be illegal aliens subject to an ICE detainer and yet, per current local policy, they would be released back into the local community without notice to ICE. https://t.co/G17KNHlKEs pic.twitter.com/dnY9kbOLj3 — ICE (@ICEgov) November 1, 2019

“It is past time to put aside all the political rhetoric and listen to the facts – and the fact is, people are being hurt and victimized every day because of jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE,” Director Albence said in the report.

During Fiscal Year 2017, ICE officials reported the transfer of 691 criminal aliens with immigration detainers in place throughout the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, area to ERO custody. “In 2018, since the enactment of Wake’s non-cooperation policy these individuals are instead released into the community where they are free to re-offend until ICE is able to locate and arrest them, or until they commit additional preventable crimes in the community resulting in their arrest again by other law enforcement,” the report states.

“Uncooperative jurisdictions such as Wake County should be on notice that as long as criminal offenders are being released, they should get used to seeing a lot more ICE at-large enforcement activity in their communities,” Albence concluded.