MN sheriff says ICE was too busy in Twin Cities to pick man accused of sex crime
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MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The Cottonwood County Sheriff is pushing back against a post from ICE that the sheriff says "misrepresented the truth" about the release of a man accused of criminal sexual conduct against a teen girl.
ICE blasts sheriff over sex offender's release
The backstory:
In a tweet on Tuesday, ICE shared a video of its officers arresting a Guatemala man accused of criminal sexual conduct. In the tweet, ICE accused Cottonwood County of letting him go free.
"This is who sanctuary city politicians and anti-ICE agitators are defending: Cottonwood County, Minnesota, refused to honor our detainer for this alleged child sexual predator. ICE still arrested him," the tweet reads.
The subject of Minnesota law enforcement honoring ICE detainers has been a controversy during the surge. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security have routinely accused Minnesota officials of not honoring their detainers. Minnesota leaders have argued against those assertions, saying that while some jails, including Hennepin and Ramsey counties, don't honor detainers, most counties do, as does the state Department of Corrections.
Dig deeper:
The man in question, 20-year-old Samuel Arevalo Hernandez, was charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct last week by the Mountain Lake Police Department. According to the charges, Hernandez is accused of engaging in an inappropriate and sometimes abusive sexual relationship with a teen girl. Police say the relationship began when Hernandez was 19 and the girl was 15 and continued until this past summer.
Sheriff says ICE tweet is ‘not true’
What they're saying:
In a statement on Wednesday, the Cottonwood County Sheriff fought back against ICE's accusations, saying the department contacted ICE but was told officers weren't able to pick up Hernandez because they were busy in the Twin Cities.
The sheriff admits ICE put in a detainer request for Hernandez, asking deputies to notify them as soon as possible if Hernandez was granted release. The sheriff says on Jan. 13, the jail was notified that someone had posted bail for Hernandez. The sheriff says a jail employee immediately called ICE to alert agents.
In his statement, Sheriff Jason Purrington writes: "A jail employee spoke with an ICE agent who we are routinely in contact with. That agent stated they were otherwise detained in the metro area and unable to respond to Cottonwood County at this time. ICE stated they would pick [Hernandez] up at a later date. ICE asked for address information for [Hernandez], which was given."
The sheriff goes on to say that the tweet by ICE was "wholly inaccurate and not true and does not represent the facts of this incident."