A Denver area district attorney criticized the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the federal agency detained a criminal alien who was released on bond.
Yerbis Manuel Garcia-Quintero, 46, missed a preliminary hearing last Thursday for two felony cases due to the ICE arrest, said the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which covers Arapahoe County outside of Denver.
The office claimed that Garcia-Quintero is “unlikely to face justice” because he’s being deported, but ICE said it’s fulfilling its mission to keep criminal aliens off the streets.
In one of Garcia-Quintero’s pending cases, he was charged with kidnapping and criminal mischief. In the other case, he was charged with aggravated robbery, victim intimidation, second-degree assault, extortion, felony menacing, and false imprisonment, among other charges. He bonded out of jail after covering a $100,000 bond in the first case and $250,000 in the second.
“As an elected District Attorney, I’m committed to holding violent offenders accountable, regardless of their immigration status,” District Attorney Amy Padden said Friday. “When a federal agency’s actions prevent us from performing the job I was elected to do by transporting a defendant with pending criminal charges outside of my jurisdiction and failing to produce him for a scheduled court hearing, this is a major injustice to this community and to the victims impacted by these cases.”
ICE hit back in a statement, saying: “ICE’s mission is public safety, criminal aliens will not be allowed to roam free.”
“In the past, ICE Denver and the 18th DA have enjoyed a great working relationship, with ICE honoring writs for their trials and the 18th notifying us of detainee releases,” ICE FOD Robert Guadian said Friday. “This individual was ordered removed by an immigration judge, ICE cannot keep him any longer than it takes to arrange transportation out of the country. ICE Denver hopes that the new 18th DA is willing to resolve these issues before they arise.”
According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Colorado is one of 11 known “sanctuary states,” with a law that bans state and local law enforcement from cooperating with ICE detainer requests.
