Yet again, Immigration and Customs alleges, a sanctuary county is directly responsible for multiple crimes, including two murders, committed by an illegal alien.
The Santa Clara County (Calif.) Jail ignored a detainer from ICE, in June, and instead released an estimable fellow named Fernando Jesus Lopez-Garcia. On November 22, police say, he stabbed two people to death during a rampage at a church in San Jose.
It will be an all-too-familiar story if Lopez-Garcia is guilty. ICE issues an immigration detainer on an illegal alien. A sanctuary city or county defies it and releases the illegal. The illegal rapes or murders someone.
And not a single sanctuary city official is held accountable.
The Stabbing
Lopez-Garcia, a homeless bum, was at the Grace Baptist Church to escape the weather. The church generously opens its doors to the homeless on cold nights.
About 8 p.m. on Sunday, police allege, Lopez-Garcia stabbed five people at the church, the San Jose Mercury News reported. A man died at the scene, a woman at the hospital. Lopez-Garcia wounded three others.
Lopez-Garica had been released from jail on a domestic charge for which he was arraigned on June 29, the newspaper reported, but the release was “pulled Aug 31 after he did not show up for a mandatory court hearing, according to court records.”
But the jail should not have released him to begin with because Immigration and Customs Enforcement lodged a detainer on Lopez-Garcia in June.
ICE Details History
Lopez-Garcia, ICE reported, “is a repeat immigration offender with a significant criminal history spanning back nearly 15 years that includes convictions for battery of a spouse, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, battery of an officer, and vandalism.”
But that didn’t matter in San Jose, a sanctuary city thanks to surrounding Santa Clara County.
ICE detailed Lopez-Garcia’s career doing the jobs Americans won’t do:
On July 17, 2019, the Stockton, California, Police Department arrested De Jesus Lopez-Garcia for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, kidnapping, and threatening crime with intent to terrorize. On July 18, 2019, [ICE] lodged an immigration detainer with the San Joaquin County Jail (SJCJ), but on an unknown date, the SJCJ failed to honor the detainer and released Lopez-Garcia without notification to ICE.
On Aug. 26, 2019, the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Office arrested De Jesus Lopez-Garcia for local charges, and on Aug. 28, 2019, [ICE] again lodged an immigration detainer with the SJCJ. On an unknown date, the SJCJ failed to honor the detainer and released Lopez-Garcia without notification to ICE.
On June 9, the Superior Court of San Joaquin, California, convicted De Jesus Lopez-Garcia for inflicting corporal injury on a spouse and sentenced him to 327 days in jail and five years’ probation. On June 26, [ICE] lodged an immigration detainer with the Santa Clara County Jail. The jail failed to honor the detainer, and De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was again released into the community without notification to ICE.
And so on November 22, police allege, Lopez-Garcia stabbed two people to death and wounded three more.
“Regrettably, politics continues to prevail over public safety, the detainers were ignored, and De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was released to the street,” said David Jennings, of ICE’s San Francisco field office. “Because of this recklessness, people lost their lives, allegedly at the hands of a repeat criminal and immigration offender.”
Police Chief Edgardo Garcia, who with Mayor Sam Liccardo wants the county sanctuary policy changed, said Lopez-Garcia was deported three times, Fox News reported.
The Larson Murder
Sunday’s victims aren’t the first that police connect to the city’s sanctuary policy.
Last year just before dawn on February 28, police allege, Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranzaos cudgeled and stabbed to death Bambi Larson in her home.
Despite the illegal alien’s career of violent gang crime and nine detainers from ICE, the Mercury News reported, the Santa Clara County Jail released him.
Sanctuary cities frequently ignore detainers and instead release illegal alien thugs, who then rape or murder. The cities then blame federal authorities for not obtaining a warrant, as did Santa Clara in the Larson case.
After the Larson murder, despite a plea from Garcia and Liccardo, authorities in Santa Clara decided the sanctuary law that loosed Carranzaos was good public policy and voted not to change it.
