Oklahoma County was pressured to remove ICE - then released an accused repeat rapist

In an October 10 news release, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of Antonio Ulises Perez, a 38-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador who had been accused of rape, after the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office failed to honor an ICE detainer and released him from custody instead.

ICE lodges “detainers” on individuals who were arrested by local authorities on criminal charges and who ICE believes are removable illegal aliens. The detainer asks the receiving law enforcement agency to notify ICE before releasing the suspect, and to hold them in prison until ICE takes custody.

Antonio Ulises Perez had been arrested by the Oklahoma City Police Department on September 30, on suspicion of rape. Almost immediately following his October 9 release from the Oklahoma County Jail, he went to the home of a woman and according to charges raped her also.

Less than three months earlier, activists had called for the removal of ICE agents from the Oklahoma County jail

Since 2015, two ICE agents have been stationed at the Oklahoma County jail on weekdays, one during the day and one at night. ICE does not have a 287(g) agreement with the county sheriff. In a 287(g) program, ICE delegates to local law enforcement officers the authority to perform limited immigration law enforcement functions. The two ICE agents at the Oklahoma County jail are only there to facilitate the process of identifying detainees.

As reported by the Oklahoma Gazette, the subject of the ICE officers was put on the agenda for the July 22 meeting of the Oklahoma County Criminal Justice Authority (the jail trust) by one of the nine trustees, who opposes their presence. About 20 people signed up to speak at the meeting, all of whom requested the jail trust to remove the ICE agents from the county jail.

The woman who appears in the video at 0:11 through 0:16, in the midst of an impassioned, heart-rending plea to remove ICE from the county jail, is Sara Bana, a “community activist”. Sara Zaynab Bana was born in Tehran, Iran, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. In 2011, her work as a community organizer transformed into a not-for-profit agency called the Civic Services Community Advocacy. The CSCA performs advocacy services for the LGBT community; individuals with disabilities, including those struggling with addiction; the homeless; ex-convicts, including sex offenders; immigrants; women and children; and those on the run from violence; and minorities.

At the jail trust meeting, Sara Bana held her naturalization papers, saying she carries her documentation with her to prevent being accidentally put into detention centers. As if people in Tehran, Baghdad, Athens, Paris or Tokyo don't need to carry ID with them, in order to prove who they are should the need arise.

United We Dream

Returning to the video, a DACA recipient named Cynthia Garcia appears at 0:45 through 0:53. She is worried that her loved ones, who evidently are illegal aliens, might wind up in the county jail and get deported. Cynthia Garcia is the deportation defense manager for an organization called United We Dream. In the Oklahoma Gazette report, Garcia states the Oklahoma County jail is already a very toxic place for Oklahomans .

By “Oklahomans” she is referring to people who belong in Mexico or Central America.

The United We Dream About page contains concrete policy recommendations for Congress to dismantle U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and enact legislation to turn their targets into citizens.

Their “dream” is an Hispanic reconquista of the southwestern United States.

Donald Trump and his administration are accused of advancing a racist agenda through vigilantism and the use of a massive and highly political armed wing of the government built for mass deportation. The administration is accused of having given free rein to ICE and CBP to terrorize, dehumanize, and abuse immigrant communities .

For the meantime, the illegal alien rapist from El Salvador is safely in prison.