Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said ICE needed to do their jobs better during a press conference about Christopher Puente.
An illegal immigrant whom Chicago police released instead of holding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) went on to rape a three-year-old girl in a McDonald’s bathroom, and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has blamed ICE.
ICE Deputy Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations Henry Lucero said Illinois’ “sanctuary” status made it difficult for federal immigration authorities to find and remove criminal illegal immigrants, the Daily Mail reported.
ICE has said that Cook County, where Chicago is located, denied more than 1,000 detainer requests just in 2019.
“If ICE is complaining, then they should do their job better,” Lightfoot told reporters, according to Chicago radio station WLS.
ICE said that 34-year-old Christopher Puente, a Mexican national, has a criminal record that dates back 20 years.
Court records showed Puente was convicted of burglary, forgery, trespassing, domestic battery, and additional related offenses between 2006 and 2018, ACV Reports has learned. ICE records indicate he was initially deported to Mexico on Dec. 4, 2014 pursuant to an administrative removal order because he was a convicted aggravated felon, WLS reported.
ACV Reports has learned Puente returned to the United States just five days later, placed under arrest after he claimed to be a U.S. citizen and presented a fake birth certificate to border agents at the Brownsville, Texas border crossing, Further, ICE said Puente was charged with falsely claiming citizenship and ordered to appear before an immigration judge.
Like many "catch-and-release" detainees from the Obama era of border enforcement, he never showed up for court.
The judge ordered Puente removed, in absentia, on March 30, 2017, according to court records made available to ACV Reports. He was arrested for theft in June of 2019 and should have been held by Chicago police on a detainer from ICE so he could be deported, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, Puente was released under the city's "sanctuary city" police and was free until he was arrested for raping a three-year-old girl in the men’s room at a Chicago McDonald’s, according to records obtained by ACV Reports.
Police identified Puente through McDonald’s security video and he was later arrested.
He confessed to some of what he had done to the little girl after he was arrested, WLS reported.
Prosecutors said Puente told police “he was [expletive] up and thinking dirty” when he pulled the little girl into his bathroom stall, according to the Daily Mail.
ICE once again requested that Chicago police detain Puente on Feb. 20, the agency said
Among all the bizarre facts of this case is the fact the Chicago mayor would have the audacity to defend her city's "sanctuary" policy that required the police department’s earlier decision to release Puente before the little girl was raped.
"They're critical because we have said very clearly we are a welcoming city, a sanctuary city,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago Police Department will not cooperate with ICE on any immigration-related business. And that's affected their ability to conduct immigration raids across the city.”
“But that's exactly our intention,” the mayor added. “We have to make sure our police department is seen as a legitimate force in all our communities."
Robert Guadian, field office director of Chicago Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), blamed lawmakers for the fact Puente was free on the streets when he raped the three year old, FOX News reported.
“How many more victims must there be before lawmakers realize that sanctuary policies do not protect the innocent?” Guadian asked. “Puente should have been in ICE custody last year and removed to his home country. Instead, irresponsible lawmaking allowed him to walk free and prey on our most vulnerable.”
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