June 2, 2022: ICE agents conduct an enforcement operation in the U.S. interior. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
According to the ICE statement, the Barnstable County Superior Court not only ignored their detainer requests but also violated the terms of their own agreement by refusing to return Moreira da Cruz to ICE, after obtaining him through a "writ of habeas corpus."
Moreira da Cruz was originally arrested in August 2023 by police in Yarmouth. He was arraigned in December 2023 and held at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, which is run by the Barnstable Sheriff’s Office, until he was released on June 18, 2024, despite there being an ICE detainer against him.
ICE tracked down and arrested Moreira da Cruz several months later on Oct. 16 and, after receiving a habeas corpus request, had to again turn him over to the Barnstable Superior Court on Nov. 27. The court then ignored the ICE detainer and released him on Dec. 5.
Moreira da Cruz is charged with a series of violent felonies, including rape and extortion with threat of injury.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials looking to arrest an illegal immigrant with criminal record, raid a home on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. (Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Barnstable Sheriff Donna Buckley told Fox News Digital that Lunn vs. Commonwealth makes it so that "it is unlawful for state and local law enforcement agencies to arrest or detain people solely on the basis of an ICE detainer, beyond the time that the individual would otherwise be entitled to be released from State custody."
"The Massachusetts sheriffs operate within the scope and parameters of federal, state and local laws and regulations," said Buckley. "As such, the sheriffs are bound to follow the law of the Commonwealth, and therefore cannot hold an individual based on an ICE detention request alone, if that incarcerated individual is not subject to separate judicially issued detention orders."
"The sheriffs do not make the law. The sheriffs enforce the law," she added.
DEM GOVERNOR THREATENS TO USE 'EVERY TOOL' TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST TRUMP-ERA DEPORTATIONS
L- U.S. Southern border R - President Trump (Getty Images)
Arthur said that he anticipates the Trump administration and incoming border czar Tom Homan will move quickly to push Congress to put such stipulations in place.
"The biggest issue with this is that it places ICE enforcement and removal officers in great danger because, rather than taking custody of a criminal in a secure location, a local jail or a state prison, they have to actually go out on the street. They have to find that person at their house, and that puts their lives at danger," he explained. "It's also important to note this is a community safety issue."
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"If we really want to keep our streets safe," he went on, "the best way to do that is to take the criminals off the street. And really, that's what should be happening, and I anticipate you will see a movement, particularly under a second Trump administration, to make that happen."
Despite the actions by Barnstable County officials, Moreira da Cruz is currently in ICE custody, pending immigration and criminal proceedings.
Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blue-state-county-has-policy-ignoring-ice-requests-against-illegal-immigrants