Seattle and surrounding King County and Washington State can take credit for the murder of another American thanks to sanctuary policies that repeatedly freed an illegal-alien thug despite detainers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The victim: Ian Eckles, 41. The suspect: Jorge Omar Alcantara-Gonzalez, 41, an illegal Mexican.
The Kittitas County Sheriff’s Department collared him on Sunday, and ICE has lodged yet another detainer.
Eckles’ is the second murder in less than a year for which sanctuary authorities are directly responsible.
Last year, Seattle Police and King County repeatedly released an illegal-alien Mexican before he murdered someone in November, ICE said at the time. Authorities also released two other illegals later charged with murder.
Three-time Deportee
Eckles disappeared on May 17, news reports say, never to be heard from again. A tipster’s calls to police led to Alcantara-Gonzalez’s arrest in connection with the murder.
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But Eckles would be alive if not for state and local sanctuary policies, avers ICE, which provided a list of the suspect’s arrests and the mulish refusal of local authorities to keep him in jail until ICE could pick him up and deport him.
Federal authorities had deported Alcantara-Gonzalez three times, on November 20, 2003; January 8, 2009; and December 21, 2013, ICE reported, but “he illegally re-entered the U.S. on an unknown date and at an unknown location.”
Having established himself in sanctuary Washington, Alcantara-Gonzalez embarked on a distinguished criminal career.
• On December 26, 2017, cops arrested Alcantara-Gonzalez for drunk driving. Before ICE could pick him up, the county jail released him.
• In December 2018, cops arrested him twice, once for auto theft on Christmas Eve. ICE filed a detainer to no avail. That arrest led to a conviction in June 2019 for vehicle prowling in the second degree, “On an unknown date, the King County Jail failed to honor the immigration detainer and he was released back into the community.”
• On March 19, 2019, Seattle cops busted Alcantara-Gonzalez for failure to comply. ICE lodged a detainer two days later, but the King County Jail failed to honor it and released him.
• On May 31, 2019, a court in King County convicted the thug of drunk-driving, and sentenced him to 364 days in jail, 363 suspended.
• The Kittitas Sheriff’s office arrested him on Sunday in the murder of Eckles.
Other Victims
Eckles, of course, is not the first victim of the radical Left’s sanctuary policies in Washington state.
In November, ICE divulged the long criminal history of yet another illegal-alien Mexican murder suspect, along with the long record of the authorities’ disdain for enforcing the law, permitting him to run free on the streets.
Julio Cruz-Velazquez, suspected of killing a man inside his home with random gunfire, must have become bosom buddies with cops in Seattle such was his record of arrest and release, despite detainers.
He was previously deported in 2000 before three arrests in Seattle from 2010-2012 for robbery and manufacturing illegal drugs. Before ICE could file detainers, the city released him all three times.
Other arrests included these, ICE reported at the time:
• Between June 7, 2012 and July 27 2016, Seattle’s finest arrested and released him four times, with ICE having time to file a detainer.
• Cops in Tukwila arrested him for rape on July 7, 2018. ICE filed a detainer on July 9, but the King County Jail released him without notifying ICE.
• Cops in Tukwila collared him for drunk driving on January 4, 2019. ICE lodged a detainer three days later, but the King County Jail released him anyway, without telling ICE.
• On April 4, 2019, he was convicted of domestic violence, and on July 10, landed in jail for violating parole. Authorities freed him again before ICE could file a detainer.
• On November 3, police allege, he killed 56-year-old Sam Lam in his sleep.
It was the third murder attributable to sanctuary policies, ICE said.
Sanctuary officials have not said how many more Americans must die before they re-examine the policies.
Unfortunately, the victims of sanctuary murders cannot hold officials or the municipalities they govern legally responsible.
Leftist judges on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal shot down the effort of murder-victim Kate Steinle’s family to hold San Francisco accountable for her murder at hands of yet another illegal-alien thug whom federal authorities had deported five times.
Photo: South_agency / E+ / Getty Images Plus
