ICE deportations are derailing Colorado criminal prosecutions
When a Venezuelan immigrant was arrested last year and charged with sexually assaulting a -year-old girl in Jefferson County the teen s mother hoped for justice J E who is being identified by her initials to protect her daughter s identity craved the suspect to be convicted locked away She wished to know he couldn t hurt anyone else at least for a while But that s not what happened Jesus Alberto Pereira Castillo posted bail and was circulated from the Jefferson County jail on Nov court records show He was subsequently arrested by federal immigration functionaries and was deported from the country by May Clerk notified via email that deft the defendant has been removed from the country Chief Judge Jeffrey Pilkington wrote in a May order The deportation effectively ended the state s criminal event against Castillo the prosecution cannot continue without his presence in court though he remains craved on a warrant and could be prosecuted if he were to return to Colorado There was no conviction no sentence no jail time just a deportation It s been pretty hard on me and my daughter J E declared She doesn t feel like she is getting the justice she deserves It just has been so easy for immigrants to come into the country after they are deported So the fear is that he might relocate somewhere else in the U S and do this to someone else Them deporting him ruined justice for my daughter At least two dozen defendants and one witness in criminal cases in metro Denver have been taken into custody by U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement and deported in the middle of ongoing state prosecutions since September The Denver Post determined District attorneys across the region started to notice more defendants disappearing into ICE custody this spring as President Donald Trump ramped up deportations nationwide Colorado district attorneys who spoke with The Post mentioned such deportations are not in the interest of justice and do not improve population safety over the long term If I can t hold someone accountable because the defendant is deported before we ve reached a just outcome in the event and the defendant finds their way back here and commits another crime that does not make the population safer th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason stated If casualties of crime are afraid to call the police after they have been sexually assaulted or specific other terrible crime because they are worried about being deported that makes our locality less safe The defendants deported were charged with crimes that included driving under the influence car theft drug distribution assault domestic violence attempted murder and human trafficking Again and again court records reviewed by The Post evidenced criminal cases stalled by deportations Def does not appear as he was deported and is no longer in the U S a document notes in the file for a -year-old man from Brazil who was accused of swinging a knife at his wife Deft no longer in the country Defendant failed to appear a record states in the file for a -year-old man from Mexico charged with driving a stolen car Full force of the law Detectives with the Arapahoe County Sheriff s Office and the Denver Police Department spent six months building a affair against a -year-old man from El Salvador who they alleged sold drugs and was connected to a woman who fatally overdosed at an Arapahoe County apartment complex in October The examination included a drug deal with an undercover Denver detective and ongoing surveillance The man was charged with four felony counts related to drug dealing and two counts of child abuse after the six-month scrutiny culminated in his arrest on April The man s arrest affidavit notes that he was arrested by the Aurora Police Department s SWAT band and then without further explanation says he was taken into custody by ICE Aurora police spokesman Joe Moylan mentioned the city s SWAT crew assisted in the arrest and then turned the man over to the sheriff s office while at the scene Anders Nelson a spokesman for the Arapahoe County Sheriff s Office stated the agency partners with ICE when pursuing cases against suspected non-citizen drug dealers ICE uses various means to positively identify these individuals and so when they are arrested ICE agents respond to identify the individual so that we can charge them accordingly under their correct name Nelson reported In this scenario the subject had a lengthy criminal history that included evolving warrants for his arrest and had entered the U S illegally on several occasions and so ICE agents took custody of him The suspect accused of selling drugs was deported within a month The state criminal matter remains open Deft has been deported the man s court records noted on May In an emailed declaration Denver ICE spokesman Steve Kotecki explained the federal agency arrests aliens who threaten community safety and commit crimes Before their current arrests and deportations the two men from El Salvador and Brazil had previously been cited only for traffic violations in Colorado according to records kept by the Colorado Bureau of Research The man from Mexico had prior convictions for car theft and drug possession ICE recognizes the importance of addressing unlawful actions with the full force of the law ensuring that individuals are held accountable for their actions Kotecki commented in the comment We are committed to creating safe and thriving communities by supporting effective and fair law enforcement practices Tristan Gorman a criminal defense attorney noted that ICE s mid-case deportations which come before a defendant is convicted of a crime are altogether disregarding the constitutional presumption of innocence Mason who serves as DA for Adams and Broomfield counties mentioned federal agencies are under enormous pressure to implement the policies of the current administration This is new he stated of the growing number of mid-case deportations Long-used process is no longer reliable In the past when ICE detained defendants while their state cases were ongoing prosecutors relied on court orders called writs to ensure the defendants still appeared in court A writ in this context is a judge s order to a custodial agency like a jail or immigration detention center requiring the agency to bring the defendant to court ICE is no longer reliably complying with writs to produce defendants for their state hearings First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King mentioned It s hard to know and it s hard to predict how a writ will be honored or not she mentioned A writ was our standard process that we relied on to keep someone available for a criminal proceeding It is not consistently working ICE hasn t communicated its policies or procedures in any cohesive way to her club of Jefferson and Gilpin county prosecutors King explained Her office is relying on personal connections between staff and officers at ICE to try to ensure defendants in federal custody are brought to court It s felt pretty ad hoc and often reliant on us being very proactive she reported The Aurora ICE Processing Center as seen on Sept in Aurora Colorado Photo by Daniel Brenner Special to The Denver Post ICE executives informed the Adams County Sheriff s Office and the Denver Sheriff Department in June that the agency would no longer comply with writs for detainees in immigration custody to physically appear in the counties criminal courts ICE Denver is no longer honor sic writ from Denver County Court due to the Denver County Jail do not sic comply with immigration detainer or fail to transfer custody of aliens in a safe and orderly manner Hung Thach a supervisory detention and deportation officer in the Denver field office wrote in a June email to Denver agents In a announcement issued to News and Colorado Society Radio Denver Field Office Director Robert Gaudian stated ICE would not honor the writs because agency leaders were not confident the detainees would be returned to ICE s custody after their state court appearances Kotecki did not respond to a request to share that comment with The Post He previously has requested blanket anonymity for his statements as a spokesman for the federal agency which The Post declined to grant He also has announced he would no longer provide information to The Post unless the newspaper complied with his request for anonymity In the past ICE Denver and the Adams County sheriff have enjoyed a great working relationship with ICE honoring writs for trials and the sheriff notifying us of an alien s release Gaudian declared in the report according to News This relationship must be reciprocal though If I m not confident that the sheriff will return an alien to us then I cannot in good conscience release that individual Denver sheriff s spokeswoman Daria Serna defended the department s practices for handling writs in a message Wednesday The Denver Sheriff Department s framework and practice for the transfer of people in custody are in alignment with state and local laws she declared ICE approach varies by jurisdiction So far in Boulder immigration agents have largely complied with writs to produce defendants for state court hearings with just a handful of exceptions revealed Michael Dougherty the Boulder County district attorney The bigger pitfall for his office is not knowing about ICE detainment in time to seek a writ and delay deportation because federal agents are failing to consistently alert prosecutors when they arrest defendants in state criminal cases he reported ICE should provide a notification anytime they pick someone up and the person is a defendant Dougherty declared That has not inevitably happened What has happened more often than not is we find out from the defense attorney or someone connected to the defendant that someone has been arrested by ICE and held for doable deportation Dougherty noted that deportations seem to be happening much faster than in past years When a defendant is deported in the middle of a scenario it has a broad impact he declared The victim never had his or her day in court he noted We couldn t do justice There is no conviction no sex offender registration and no consequences And the person is deported to a country We have no reason to believe the person is held responsible for the crime they were accused of In Douglas Elbert and Lincoln counties prosecutors have not had any issues with ICE agents deporting defendants mid-case mentioned rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler He stated federal agents have given his office warnings when ICE is interested in defendants which has allowed prosecutors to revoke defendants bonds to keep them in jail in state custody while the criminal episode is pending Gorman the defense attorney disclosed revoking bond entirely because a person could be deported is fundamentally unfair We re just basically saying to them Yeah we put all these terms and conditions on your bond and you ve got to comply with them or we will revoke your bond she noted But even if you do absolutely everything right and show up at all your court dates we might revoke your bond anyway even though you followed all the rules Arrests at courthouses Colorado law prohibits ICE agents from arresting people at or near state courthouses for civil immigration purposes a line that federal agents have crossed multiple times this year including in Denver and on the Western Slope Law enforcement officers gather near a motorcycle on a street near Fox Street and Colfax Avenue in downtown Denver near the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse on Feb Photo provided by Lupe Gonzalez Related Articles Immigration arrests in Colorado have surged under the Trump administration Now we know how much Man violently arrested by ICE in Denver courthouse bathroom as young child watched witness says Feds detain immigrant family at Denver courthouse amid new Trump strategy Colorado law enforcement have limited interaction with ICE Could that change under Trump s mass deportations ACLU of Colorado accuses Denver Immigration Court of violating First Amendment Federal agents have also been routinely making immigration arrests at Denver s federal courthouses which are not covered by the state prohibition In Garfield Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties federal agents monitored courthouse dockets in order to detain defendants for immigration proceedings Ninth Judicial District Chief Judge John Neiley wrote in an April order instructing federal agents to stop In short these types of arrests make courthouses less safe frustrate the process of justice and could have a chilling effect on litigants eyewitnesses casualties court personnel and other members of the masses who have a right and obligation to participate fairly in the judicial system Neiley wrote in the order Although the practice is against Colorado law there are no criminal penalties for federal agents who make such prohibited arrests Rather state law says they can be held in contempt of court or sued by the Colorado Attorney General s Office Spokesman Lawrence Pacheco noted the office could not confirm or comment on any such investigations Attorney General Phil Weiser is concerned about reports of ICE arrests at state courthouses interfering with state criminal prosecutions and having a chilling effect on bystanders and casualties in criminal cases Pacheco revealed Federal immigration arrests at courthouses make our communities less safe and violate state law Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day
