ICE blasts Wake sheriff over release of sex offender in US illegally

Furmencio Miranda-Cortazar, 45, was convicted in June of two counts of sexual battery stemming from 2015 incidents involving a 13-year-old, according to court documents. He was sentenced to consecutive 150-day jail terms and was ordered to register as a sex offender and pay $3,000 to a a child advocacy group, records show.

Because he was given credit for the 11 months he had spent behind bars awaiting his day in court, Miranda-Cortazar was able to walk free the same day.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents wanted him held, having identified the Mexican national as being in the U.S. illegally following his July 2018 arrest.

Three months after his release from jail in June, ICE agents arrested him at his home last weekend. He is now in ICE custody awaiting a deportation hearing.

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Both programs are voluntary and not federally mandated.

Baker declined to comment Friday on ICE's criticisms, but spokesman Eric Curry said federal authorities had ample time to secure a warrant for Miranda-Cortazar's arrest while he was in the Wake County jail. With a pending warrant, local authorities wouldn't have released him after the local criminal charges had been resolved.

ICE spokesman Bryan Cox said the agency cannot take any action while someone is in local custody.

Baker has said that working with ICE damages the relationship between his office and the Latinx community, discouraging people from calling law enforcement for help because they fear potential deportation.

"The Wake County sheriff’s continued decision to refuse cooperation with ICE serves as an open invitation to aliens who commit criminal offenses that Wake County is a safe haven for persons seeking to evade federal authorities, and residents of Wake County are less safe today than last year due these policies," Tsoukaris said.

Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, whose office agreed to a plea deal with Miranda-Cortazar in which charges of sex offense with a child and indecent liberties with a child, said there needs to be "some middle ground" in the dispute.

"We are interested in protecting the public, and those of us who have been elected and sworn to uphold the law and protect the public need to find some way to make sure people who are a threat to public safety, that we are using all the tools that are available," Freeman said.

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Miranda-Cortazar was arrested as part of a "concentrated effort on declined detainers," Cox said.

Cox said that sheriffs across North Carolina have refused to honor 489 detainers issued between last October and mid-August. Those inmates were eventually convicted of 407 offenses, including murder, sex offenses, burglary and assaults.

"Not honoring a detainer is one things, but this is a complete lack of cooperation," Cox said of ICE's relationship with Baker and a few other sheriffs.

"Simply give us a call," he said, to allow ICE agents to pick up a wanted inmate before his or her release. "If you're a public safety officer, wouldn't you want to do everything you can to keep a violent predator off the streets?"

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