Sanctuary State Colorado: Convicted Illegal Alien Gang Member Arrested Five Years After Release into U.S.

A convicted illegal alien gang member has been arrested about five years after the sanctuary state of Colorado released him into American communities instead of turning him over to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Enrique Guzman-Rincon, a 29-year-old illegal alien gang member, was arrested by ICE agents on April 9, roughly five years after the Colorado Department of Corrections released him into nearby communities after he was convicted of attempted reckless manslaughter in October 2017.

The Mexican national had been on ICE’s Top 10 Most Wanted list.

Guzman-Rincon was first convicted of attempted murder when he allegedly left 16-year-old Karina Vargas paralyzed after he opened fire into a crowd in an attempt to shoot rival gang members in 2010 in Aurora, Colorado. Vargas was hit in the spine.

During Guzman-Rincon’s trial, where he was charged with six counts of attempted murder, jurors were sequestered overnight after authorities got word his fellow gang members had compiled a “hit list” in which they were planning to target witnesses, jurors, detectives, and prosecutors involved in the case.

After convicting Guzman-Rincon, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison. Before finishing the sentence, though, an appellate court judge overturned Guzman-Rincon’s conviction claiming the jurors in the case had been told about the threat of gang violence in the trial.

Guzman-Rincon was convicted in October 2017 of attempted reckless manslaughter by a different jury and sentenced to just three years. By then, Guzman-Rincon had already served nearly seven years for the first conviction.

Before the end of the second trial, in April 2016, ICE agents issued a detainer against Guzman-Rincon requesting Colorado officials turn him over to their custody so he could be deported from the United States.

Instead, after Aurora law enforcement officials turned Guzman-Rincon over to the Colorado Department of Corrections in late October 2017, he was released from state custody.

In 2019, Colorado’s Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed into law a sanctuary state measure that effectively prohibits all jurisdictions in the state from cooperating with ICE agents. Instead, the state requires counties to shield criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation.

Since becoming a sanctuary state, Colorado residents have been victimized by illegal aliens who would have otherwise been turned over to ICE agents. In December 2019, an illegal alien released into the community was arrested for attempted murder.

The most high-profile case has been that of Sean Buchanan, a father of five children, who was allegedly killed by an illegal alien who had been shielded from arrest and deportation thanks to a “sanctuary church” in Colorado. The illegal alien had a criminal record dating back to 2011 but was never deported.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.