Three of five MS-13 Gang members charged with murdering a 16-year-old girl in Baltimore County, Maryland, are illegal aliens, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency confirmed on Tuesday.

Weeks ago, the Baltimore County Sheriff’s Office charged 19-year-old Jonathan Pesquera-Puerto, 20-year-old Edys Valenzuella-Rodriguez, 19-year-old Wualter Hernandez-Orellana, 16-year-old Asael Ezequie Gonzalez-Merlos, and 21-year-old Wilson Art Constanza-Galdomez with murdering 16-year-old Gabriela Alejandra Gonzalez Ardon.

According to investigators, the five MS-13 gang members lured Ardon into the Loch Raven Reservoir before murdering her. Police discovered Ardon’s body in May.

ICE officials revealed that Constanza-Galdomez, Hernandez-Orellana, and Pesquera-Puerto are illegal aliens from El Salvador and Honduras who crossed the United States-Mexico border as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs).

Two of the illegal aliens benefitted from New York and Maryland sanctuary policies, ICE officials said.

Constanza-Galdomez was arrested in Suffolk County, New York, in February 2018 and was eventually turned over to ICE. In May 2018, though, an immigration judge released the illegal alien on bail. Months later, Constanza-Galdomez was again arrested in Suffolk County but was released despite ICE placing a detainer on him, requesting he be turned over to their custody.

Constanza-Galdomez was ordered removed by an immigration judge in October 2019 after he failed to appear at his immigration hearing.

Likewise, Hernandez-Orellana was arrested in Prince George County, Maryland, in January. ICE placed a detainer on Hernandez-Orellana but county officials ignored the request and released him.

“In this case, two of the suspects arrested had previously been encountered by ICE but due to state and local policies that put politics above public safety, they were released to the street,” ICE official Francisco Madrigal said. “This is the worst-case scenario when detainers are not honored.”

Every year, thousands of UACs arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border and are eventually released to sponsors in the interior of the country. The majority of these UACs are teenage boys. Last year, nearly 12,000 UACs were released into the U.S., and the year before that, close to 73,000 UACs were released.

The UAC program is widely used by the MS-13 gang to import illegal alien members into the U.S. Annually, about 22,000 potential recruits for the MS-13 gang are resettled throughout the country by the federal government. The MS-13 gang originated in El Salvador and has used the U.S. immigration system to slowly build up its membership.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.