Update: Torres has been taken into federal custody, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

ASHEVILLE - The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office released a man from jail despite a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he be held for additional time.

Marvin Torres was arrested May 4, 2017 and charged with multiple counts of statutory sex offense with a child. Warrants at the time said he engaged in sex acts with an 11-year-old when he was 23.

He was convicted of indecent liberties with a minor Oct. 28, sentenced to a "maximum possible sentence of 29 months," with credit for time served, by Judge Alan Thornburg, according to press release from District Attorney Todd Williams. Torres was released from the Buncombe County jail on Oct. 29.

Aaron Sarver, spokesman for the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, said in an Oct. 30 news release that Torres had been in custody for more than two years with the full knowledge of ICE.

"During that time ICE sent a detainer request, but failed to secure an arrest warrant and therefore Mr. Torres met the conditions of his release set forth by the judicial system," the release stated.

More on ICE detainer policies:

►Fact check on Quentin Miller: He's right. ICE detainers are not valid warrants

►Cooper quickly vetoes bill about ICE detainers; Miller, Buncombe officials had opposed it

►ICE detainers like 'Jim Crow,' black Buncombe commissioner says; Republicans counter sheriff

Sheriff Quentin Miller announced in February that his office, which operates the county's jail, no longer would honor ICE detainers. He was one of several North Carolina sheriffs to make that call.

The detainers, which ask that a suspect be held up to 48 hours for pickup, aren't arrest warrants, so they legally can be ignored.

Sarver said in the release that Miller's policy on the matter has "remained consistent regarding the need for a warrant signed by a judicial official in order for an individual to be detained in the Buncombe County Detention Facility."

"If ICE is aware of an individual that they have determined to be a danger to the public safety of Buncombe County then ICE should obtain a warrant for their arrest," Miller said in the release. "Once that warrant has been secured, my deputies will work to apprehend that individual.”

Lindsay Williams, a regional ICE spokesman, said in an email to the Citizen Times the kind of warrant Miller is waiting for isn't an option because it is only available under criminal law.

Immigration enforcement is conducted under civil law, and ICE can only issue administrative warrants along with the detainers, he said.

"The sheriff is asking for something that does not exist and cannot be provided, and he is refusing to honor the sole method that does exist under established federal law for ICE to obtain custody of an unlawfully present foreign national in local criminal custody," he said.

U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray for the Western District of North Carolina announced that he would be holding a press conference in Asheville the afternoon of Oct. 30 to "highlight the impact of 'sanctuary policies' on public safety and victims, due to the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office failure to honor federal ICE detainers."