Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be mad at the State. Not Prince George’s County. Cheltenham is a juvenile facility run by the state.

PG County never informed ICE that they were transferred to the juvenile facility.

Anonymous wrote:Be mad at the State. Not Prince George’s County. Cheltenham is a juvenile facility run by the state.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this story. I thought if you are illegal and commit a crime you get deported period.

If they were arrested a year ago for attempted murder, they should have been put on trial. This story doesn’t add up.

Anonymous wrote:
There are two separate issues that need to be addressed:

1. If a teen allegedly commits a murder, the criminal justice system should not release him a short while later. Were they cleared of the first murder and then went on to commit a second one? Something is very wrong here.

2. Illegal presence on US soil is a problem for a separate agency with a different process.

jsteele wrote:Also from that article:

"They remained detained in the juvenile facility until the disposition of their cases earlier this year."

So they were in the juvenile facility from May 15, 2018 until "earlier this year" when they were released. Because they are juveniles, the details of the case are probably not available but I would assume they were not convicted of the initial charges or they would have been held for more than 8 months.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this story. I thought if you are illegal and commit a crime you get deported period.

If they were arrested a year ago for attempted murder, they should have been put on trial. This story doesn’t add up.

Officers had lodged a detainer on the two, ICE said, when they were arrested by Prince George’s County police on May 11, 2018, on charges of attempted murder, gang activity and other related charges. But they were not notified, they said, when the pair were released.

A spokesman for the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections said in a statement that Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar were not in the county’s correction facility when they were released, and so no notification was provided to ICE.

A court order resulted in their transfer to the Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, a state facility, four days after they were arrested, Andrew Cephas with the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections said.

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand this story. I thought if you are illegal and commit a crime you get deported period.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is searching for two illegal immigrants who are also murder suspects.

ICE sent out a release on Tuesday stating they are looking for Josue Rafael Fuentes-Ponce and Joel Ernesto Escobar. The pair was reportedly released by local authorities in Prince George County in Maryland.

"Following the recent arrest of two unlawfully present teens suspected in the violent murder of a young girl in Maryland, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers in Baltimore are again seeking to take custody of the illegal aliens through the ICE detainer process following the Prince George’s County Detention Center’s (PGCDC) failure to cooperate," ICE wrote in a release.

The two suspects were arrested on May 18, 2018 for attempted first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, participating in gang activity, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted robbery, and other related charges. ICE is reporting federal officers lodged a detainer with the Prince George's County Detention Center. They were arrested again on May 16 for first-degree murder. However, both were released on an unknown date and time without notification to ICE, according to ICE. The Prince George County Police Department arrested the teens and believe both Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar are members of a gang.

“As law enforcement officers, we must continue to serve and protect the American public and act in the interest of public safety first,” said Baltimore Field Office Director Diane Witte. “These individuals had demonstrated violent criminal behavior before, and because they were released in spite of the lawful detainer, they were afforded an opportunity to take a life.”