Immigration officials confirmed to Breitbart Texas that the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office released the criminal alien who allegedly assaulted two women in Portland, Oregon after an immigration detainer requested he be held for deportation. Earlier this year, the sheriff said that turning criminal aliens over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers damages “community trust.”

After being released by Sheriff Mike Reese’s jailers in December 2016, Sergio Jose Martinez, 31, went back into the community and allegedly raped one woman and assaulted a second, both at knifepoint. Martinez allegedly broke into the home of a 65-year-old woman, tied her up, held her at knifepoint and raped her, Breitbart Texas reported.

Following his alleged attack on the 65-year-old woman in her home where she gave him her Prius to get him to leave, police responded to a call about a man attacking a woman in the basement of a parking garage below a building. There, police discovered Martinez allegedly sexually assaulting another woman and holding her at knifepoint. Martinez fled on foot and officers chased him through a neighborhood, capturing him in a nearby apartment.

Officials with ICE confirmed in an email response to inquiries from Breitbart Texas that Sheriff Reese’s office arrested Martinez and had him in custody in their jail on December 7, 2016. Immigration officers immediately “lodged an immigration detainer against him at that time requesting that the agency be notified prior to his release,” ICE spokesperson Virginia Kice stated. “However, despite the detainer, local authorities released Mr. Martinez back into the community the following day without providing any notification to ICE.”

When asked to confirm the timeline that Sheriff Reese had Martinez in custody and released him prior to Martinez going on to allegedly sexually assault two women in Portland, Kice responded, “Precisely.”

ICE expanded the information previously available about Martinez’s criminal and immigration history. “Department of Homeland Security databases indicate Mr. Martinez is a serial immigration violator who has been removed from the United States no less than 13 times since 2008,” Kice confirmed. “Relevant databases also indicate Mr. Martinez has a lengthy criminal history spanning three states, that includes numerous prior convictions for crimes including felony attempted battery, felony burglary, and felony illegal re-entry after removal.”

Despite this long history of violent crimes and immigration violations, Reese’s sanctuary policies “increased community trust” by allowing Martinez to be released from jail so that he could allegedly attack the two women in his community.

“It simply worries me that we’ve spent so much time and energy building community trust and something outside of our control may damage that,” the sheriff told Sharyl Attkisson during an interview on Full Measure in April. His comments were in reference to working with immigration officers to remove criminal aliens.

Breitbart Texas reached out to Sheriff Reese’s office to see if he will consider changing his sanctuary policies in the wake of the violent attacks on two women in his county after his office released the alleged perpetrator back onto the streets. A response was not immediately available from the sheriff’s office.

ICE spokesperson Kice concluded, “This case underscores yet again why immigration detainers are such a crucial enforcement tool for furthering public safety and why it is highly problematic when jurisdictions choose to ignore them.”

Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.