Not one, but two different agencies in Maryland released two teenagers from custody despite detainers from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The two teens -- Josue Rafael Fuentes-Ponce, 16, and Joel Ernesto Escobar, 17 -- are suspects in the MS-13-related killing of 14-year-old Ariana Funes-Diaz, of Anne Arundel County, whose body was found in Prince George's County May 15.
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"The [Prince George's County] Department of Corrections follows the Guidance Memorandum of the Maryland Attorney General to not inform U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency of individuals being released with a detainer, which is a civil matter," said Andrew Cephas, spokesman for the Prince George's County Department of Corrections, in an email.
Frosh's "Legal Guidance for Maryland State and Local Law Enforcement Officials," issued in December 2018, says that "compliance with ICE detainers is voluntary." Frosh's memo also warns that "State and local law enforcement officials are potentially exposed to liability if they hold someone beyond his or her State-law release date without a judicial warrant or probable cause that the detainee has committed a crime."
Frosh's memo specified that "Federal law does not require any local government agency or law enforcement officer to communicate with federal immigration authorities."
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