Illegal offender in Maryland sues police who surrender it to immigration authorities

An illegal immigrant in Maryland sued the state police, who handed him over to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Police (ICE) after being fined for cutting a tree without a license.

Фото: Depositphotos

31-year-old Jose Ricardo Villalta Canales helped a relative cut down a dead tree in his Rockville yard on 7 in August when police from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources came to him, lawyers from the Washington Civil Law and Urban Lawyers Committee said. Independent.

Villalta, who previously had no criminal record, did not have a license to cut down a tree, which is a violation of state law and is punishable by a fine of up to 500 dollars.

According to reports filed Monday at the US District Court in Greenbelt, it took the police 5 minutes to fine Villalta with 320 dollars. But they detained him for more than 2 hours after checking the national database to find out if he is the object of any state, federal or local orders.

The database showed that the ICE filed an administrative deportation warrant (the so-called detainer).

Maryland state authorities should act only on the basis of court or criminal warrants, the letter said to state lawmakers who were interested in the Villalta case.

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But in this case, the officer placed Villalt in custody until the arrival of federal agents. He spent more than 3 months in the ICE Detention Center in Frederick County. Immigration lawyer Vincent Rivas-Flores said Baltimore’s immigration court is pending the consideration of the Villalta case.

“There was absolutely no legal basis for his detention. There was no warrant for his arrest and no evidence that he had committed a criminal offense,” said Emily Gunston, deputy legal director of the Bar Committee.

“This is a clear case,” said Azadeh Erfani, the organization’s lawyer. “His rights were greatly violated.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources said the agency is not commenting on upcoming trials.

But in a letter to the delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo 27 on August XNUMX, the acting managing director Ernest Lezerbury Jr. said the agency was reviewing its policy to make clear that officers should act only on court orders and would train officers in a revised policy “to ensure full compliance. "

ICE did not respond to comments.

According to lawyers, Villalta was born in Salvador in 2006 year. He arrived in Montgomery County in 2006 at the age of 17 years and crossed the border on his own. Prior to his arrest, he lived in Rockville and was engaged in repairing the roof, helping to support the children of his partner and several nieces and nephews.

At a news conference Monday, Maria Villalta, 43, said her brother is a “family man” with many relatives in the Washington area. She said she recently visited him in custody and was concerned about how depressed and withdrawn he was.

“We want him to come home,” she said in Spanish through a translator.

Villalta’s arrest took place against the backdrop of months of disputes over immigration enforcement in the region and throughout the country, while this issue became a tough dividing line between supporters and opponents of Donald Trump.

In July, Montgomery County Executive Director Democrat Mark Elrich issued a radical decree banning all executive departments in the county, including the local police, from participating in federal immigration investigations. This decision was criticized by the White House and the acting director of ICE, which provoked a negative reaction from the local population, which flared up in the form of protests near the county government headquarters in Rockville.

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Last week, lawmakers in neighboring Prince George County unanimously approved a bill prohibiting all county authorities from implementing immigration law enforcement, and setting the stage for what, according to lawyers, would be an impetus for the adoption of similar legislation at the state level.

Villalta's lawyers said that what happened to him is part of a wider pattern of behavior by the authorities. Lawyers and experts warn that such arrests can effectively push immigrant communities away from working with law enforcement agencies on public safety and criminal investigations.

In New Orleans, the detention and potential deportation of an immigrant impeded an investigation into a construction site disaster that killed three people and injured dozens of others. In Washington, however, according to lawyers, victims of domestic violence are discouraged from going to court against their offenders.

“We're creating a situation where an entire community of people are afraid of any interaction with law enforcement,” Gunston said. “It’s just poor service and it’s illegal.”

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