Immigration and Customs Enforcement requested that the Baltimore County Detention Center transfer three illegal aliens who have been charged with murder into its custody.
Baltimore County authorities arrested and charged two Salvadoran nationals and one Honduran national in May. All three illegal aliens have connections to the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, gang.
The Baltimore County, Maryland Circuit Court charged Wilson Art Constanza–Galdomez, 21; Wualter Orellana-Hernandez, 19; and Jonathan J. Pesquera-Puerto, 19, with first-degree murder, first degree assault and kidnapping.
They are suspected of murdering Gabriela Ardon, 16, on May 29 as well as assaulting three people on June 6, which ended in a woman’s death.
“In this case, two of the suspects arrested had previously been encountered by ICE but due to state and local policies that put politics above public safety, they were released to the street,” said Acting Baltimore Field Office Director Francisco Madrigal.
“This is the worst-case scenario when detainers are not honored,” he added.
All three men entered the United States as minors.
Constanza–Galdomez and Orellana–Hernandez both had been previously arrested and released before being charged with murder.
Authorities in Suffolk County, New York, arrested Constanza–Galdomez in February 2018 for local-level crimes. He was taken into ICE’s custody on March 3, 2018.
An immigration judge released him on bond on May 29, 2018, until his hearing.
Suffolk County arrested Constanza–Galdomez later that year, on Dec. 8, 2018, but this time local authorities did not transfer him to ICE’s custody and he was released in April 2019.
He failed to appear at his immigration hearing in Oct. 2019. A judge ordered him to deported.
Prince George’s County Police Department arrested and charged Orellana–Hernandez on Jan. 20, 2020.
ICE agents sent a detainer to request his custody, but the authorities released him.
