5 New York Immigrants Arrested After ICE's Requests Ignored

NEW YORK CITY — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested five immigrants in New York City this week even after city officials ignored requests to keep them in jail, federal authorities said Wednesday. The five men had been previously arrested on separate crimes, but local officials did not honor ICE's requests to hold them under New York's "sanctuary city" policy, ICE said.

The immigrants had prior criminal convictions of varying severity. One, Gurnam Singh of India, had been found guilty of sexual abuse and other crimes, but another man had only been convicted of marijuana possession.

Singh had been arrested three times without ever encountering an immigration agent because the city closed ICE's office on Rikers Island and ignored a request to hold Singh so he could be hit with immigration charges, ICE said. ICE agents arrested Singh on Monday and is awaiting an immigration hearing.

"At-large criminal alien arrests are among the most dangerous types of enforcement actions ICE officers are engaged in on a daily basis," Thomas R. Decker, an ICE field office director in New York, said in a statement. "These arrests also represent the greatest risk to the community. This level of unnecessary risk can be mitigated in many instances."

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Also See: 5 Facts About U.S. Immigration And Customs Enforcement

The arrests continue federal efforts to undermine sanctuary policies that aim to protect immigrants by limiting local official's cooperation and communication with ICE. New York City does not honor so-called detainer requests to hold undocumented immigrants for ICE arrests. The city also doesn't let ICE agents into local jails.

Marco Freire of Ecuador was arrested July 4 on several charges including assault and criminal possession of a weapon and released July 19, after ICE sent a request to detain him. ICE agents arrested Freire in Brooklyn on Monday.

Steven Anthony Beswick of Jamaica was arrested in Westchester County on Oct. 6 and released the same day, despite a detainer request from ICE, the agency said. ICE said he has a past conviction for marijuana possession, but the state's criminal court records database has no online records tied to his name.

Omar Castro of Mexico was arrested in Brooklyn July 28 and later released after a detainer request was sent, ICE said. He previously served a year in jail for criminal possession of a controlled substance and had been deported in 2010. There are no online court records under his name.

ICE said Jonathan Aparicio, also of Mexico, was jailed in Westchester County on an unspecified charge when ICE asked authorities to detain him Aug. 4. He was released Sept. 13 after pleading guilty and being sentenced to the jail time he already served, ICE said. ICE arrested him in Yonkers in early October. There are no online court records under his name.

Deborah Axt, co-executive director for the immigrant-rights group Make the Road New York, said ICE arrests like these indicate the agency is "trying to paint immigrants with a brush labeling them criminals."

"It's disgusting that ICE continues to defy all data and evidence to the contrary and tries to insist that they are rounding up folks who are dangerous somehow if they stay here in the United States," Axt said.

(Lead image by John Moore / Getty Images / Getty Images Staff)