Feds Let Illegal Immigrant Child Rapist Get Away

Highlighting the U.S. government’s ongoing failure to protect Americans from violent illegal immigrants is the case of a Mexican man who sexually assaulted a Colorado girl yet posted bail and fled south of the border because immigration officials failed to act.

The horrific crime and subsequent negligence by authorities took place in Denver. The illegal alien, who said his name is Manuel Flores, raped and sodomized his girlfriend’s 9-year-old daughter and was arrested by local police.

Because the man could not provide a Social Security number or driver’s license when he was booked at the Denver jail, the sheriff’s department alerted federal immigration officials that he might be in the country illegally.

But the Homeland Security agency in charge of detaining such offenders, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), failed to issue a crucial immigration hold that would permit long term incarceration and subsequent deportation. So the man posted the $3,500 for his $35,000 bond and fled to his native Mexico.

Legally, there was nothing more for local authorities to do once the judge set bail. A bounty hunter tracked the man in his Mexican hometown and, although the information was given to prosecutors, there has been no effort to bring him back to the U.S. so that justice can be served.

Under a 2005 agreement with ICE, the Denver Sheriff’s Department regularly reports suspected illegal aliens that have been arrested. Of the roughly 20 suspected illegal immigrants the sheriff reports daily, ICE puts holds on only two or three. The agency clearly missed the boat in this case.

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