Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) and the Chicago Police Department are defending freeing an illegal alien convicted felon who allegedly sexually assaulted a three-year-old girl in a public bathroom.

As Breitbart News reported, 35-year-old illegal alien Christopher Puente from Mexico was charged in Chicago, Illinois, with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault after he allegedly locked himself in a McDonald’s bathroom stall with a three-year-old girl and proceeded to sexually assault her.

Puente could have been transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody by Chicago law enforcement officials in June 2019, but instead, the sanctuary city released the illegal alien back into the general public.

In statements to local media, Lightfoot and Chicago Police officials defended their release of Puente months before he allegedly sexually assaulted the three-year-old girl.

“If ICE is complaining, then they should do their job better,” Lightfoot said. She continued:

[ICE officials are] critical because we have said very clearly we are a welcoming city, a sanctuary city. Chicago Police Department will not cooperate with ICE on any immigration-related business. And that’s affected their ability to conduct immigration raids across the city. But that’s exactly our intention. We have to make sure our police department is seen as a legitimate force in all our communities.

Likewise, Chicago Police officials defended their sanctuary city policy in a statement:

The Chicago Police Department remains committed to protecting all Chicago residents regardless of their immigration status. Our pledge to restrict ICE access to our information systems and our refusal to cooperate with ICE immigration enforcement measures has not changed.

Christopher Puente was ordered deported years ago after failing to show up for his immigration hearing. Now, he’s accused of sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl. https://t.co/eTHC9LL4Oy — John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) March 3, 2020

Puente has a long criminal history in the U.S. after first illegally crossing the southern border sometime before 2011. Puente has two felony convictions for burglary in 2011 and 2017 and was convicted of forgery in 2012.

While crossing the Texas-Mexico border in Brownsville in December 2014, Puente was confronted by U.S. Border Patrol agents and claimed to be an American citizen, giving them a fraudulent birth certificate. Puente was already a convicted felon in the U.S.

In March 2017, Puente failed to show up to his court date for an immigration hearing. The judge subsequently ordered him deported from the U.S., but he had been freely living in the sanctuary state of Illinois. In June 2019, ICE agents requested that Puente be turned over to them following his arrest for theft.

Instead, Chicago officials released Puente back into the general public. Since Puente’s arrest for child sexual assault, ICE officials have once again requested the illegal alien be turned over to their custody should he be released from Cook County Jail at any time. Chicago’s sanctuary city policy is likely to free him into the public, again, should he be released from jail.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.