An illegal immigrant accused of serious sex crimes is now in federal custody after ICE agents arrested him in Virginia—years after local authorities had previously detained him and released him without turning him over to immigration officials.
Luis Alfonso Garcia-Jimenez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month after being charged with four counts of aggravated sexual battery and drunk driving.
ICE officials say Garcia-Jimenez poses a serious threat to the community.
“Luis Alfonso Garcia-Jimenez is a suspected sexual predator who poses a significant threat to the members of our Northern Virginia communities,” ICE Washington, D.C. official Robert Guadian said.
The case also raises questions about what happens when local jurisdictions do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
Garcia-Jimenez first came to the attention of authorities in Prince William County in December 2016, when he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
He was convicted in March 2017 and sentenced to 30 days in prison.
But when he finished his sentence, he was released rather than being transferred to ICE custody.
That decision is now taking on greater significance given the subsequent criminal case against him.
ICE eventually located and arrested Garcia-Jimenez after he was accused of four counts of aggravated sexual battery and drunk driving.
“The officers of ICE Washington, D.C. cannot allow someone like that to roam our streets,” Guadian said. “Arresting and removing criminal alien offenders like this is exactly what prioritizing public safety looks like.”
There is an important legal distinction: Garcia-Jimenez has been accused and charged, not convicted of the sexual-battery offenses described here. He remains entitled to the presumption of innocence as those criminal proceedings move forward.
But his immigration case is already moving in a different direction.
ICE has placed Garcia-Jimenez into deportation proceedings, and he remains in federal custody pending his removal from the United States.
The case illustrates one of the central arguments behind the Trump administration's renewed emphasis on immigration enforcement: immigration laws mean little if federal authorities cannot ultimately enforce them against individuals who have already come into contact with the criminal justice system.
For ICE, the objective is straightforward—identify criminal illegal immigrants, take them into custody and remove them from the country when the law permits.
And in this case, federal immigration authorities say that is exactly what they intend to do.
