The Denver Sheriff’s Department that stood firm in sanctuary city policies, admitted after releasing an illegal alien accused of running from a fatal accident that they failed to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) before releasing him on $25,000 bond.
The Sheriff’s Department had refused to honor an ICE detainer but had agreed to notify ICE if Ivan Zamarripa-Castaneda (pictured) was released on bond according to Fox News.
Zamarripa-Castaneda had been jailed on allegations of being drunk when fleeing the scene of a fatal accident he had been involved in. The other vehicle, a semi-truck, was engulfed in flames and the driver of the semi was killed. Zamarripa-Castaneda was arrested for vehicular homicide.
A statement from the Denver Sheriff’s Department later revealed that Zamarripa-Castaneda “was released from Denver’s Downtown Detention Center at 5:28 p.m. Although the department alerted ICE in response to a request for release notification it received, that did not occur until 6:33 p.m,” according to the statement provided to Fox.
The statement called the timing of the notification to ICE “unacceptable,” and that “the Sheriff has ordered an immediate internal review to determine why established notification processes did not take place before Zamarripa-Castaneda was released.”
ICE issued a response, also provided to Fox:
As law enforcement professionals, we should all have the same ultimate goal in mind to protect the public by combating criminals. ICE helps fulfill that role by removing criminal aliens from the streets, and from the United States. Zamarripa-Castaneda is currently an immigration fugitive.
As of Monday, reports indicate that neither law enforcement agency knew the whereabouts of Zamarripa-Castaneda.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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