U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 12 illegal immigrants in Charlotte, NC from Sept. 21 to 25, 2020. They were arrested as part of a targeted enforcement operation by its Fugitive Operations Teams. Six of these arrests included criminals with active ICE detainers.
Of the more notable arrests were Jose Ruiz-Quintero, Elder Amador-Lopez, and Emmanuel Guillen-Gonzalez they all had prior arrests involving alleged violent offenses.
ICE maintains that cooperation with local law enforcement is essential to protecting public safety, and the agency aims to work cooperatively with local jurisdictions to ensure that illegal immigrants are not released into U.S. communities to commit additional crimes. Unfortunately, Mecklenburg County and others continue to not only refuse to honor ICE detainers but to even notify ICE when it is releasing a potential public safety threat back into the community.
ICE is sworn to uphold the federal immigration laws enacted by Congress, and that the agency will carry out its sworn mission, with or without the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies.
Specific to Charlotte, in fiscal year 2018, 473 illegal immigrants were transferred into ICE custody pursuant to an immigration detainer.
