‘Clear Public Safety Threat’: ICE Rips Sanctuary County For Releasing Illegal Alien Convicted For Deadly Car Crash

• Jose Barajas-Diaz, an illegal alien from Mexico, was involved in a deadly drunk-driving accident in North Carolina, and ultimately convicted of felony death by motor vehicle. 
• The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor an ICE detainer placed on Barajas-Diaz and released him from custody without cooperating with the agency. ICE agents captured him days later.
• The episode marked the latest example of Mecklenburg County refusing to work with federal immigration authorities since the arrival of Sheriff Garry McFadden. 

Officials in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, refused to honor an ICE detainer placed on an illegal alien convicted in a deadly driving drunk driving accident, opting instead to release him back into the community.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) placed a detainer request on Jose Barajas-Diaz, a Mexican national living illegally in the U.S., a day after he was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, in January for driving while impaired and for felony death by motor vehicle. After his sentencing in October, however, the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office refused to honor the ICE detainer, and released him from their custody.

ICE agents were able to locate and apprehend Barajas-Diaz several days later.

“This is yet another example of a clear public safety threat being released into North Carolina communities rather than into ICE custody due to local sheriff policies on ICE non-cooperation,” Matthew Albence, the acting director of ICE, said in a Monday statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Continued decisions to refuse cooperation with ICE serve as an open invitation to aliens who commit criminal offenses that these counties are a safe haven for persons seeking to evade federal authorities, and residents of Mecklenburg County are less safe due to these misguided sanctuary policies,” Albence continued.

Barajas-Diaz was first arrested on Jan. 29 by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department following an accident that killed a motorcyclist. He made a U-turn in his truck onto inbound lanes, striking the motorcyclist, and killing him on the scene, according to...

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