Westchester Man Sentenced For Biting ICE Officer

WHITE PLAINS, NY – A Honduran national was sentenced June 12 to 364 days in federal custody after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in White Plains to one count of assault on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.

ICE officers spent two weeks in 2017 searching for the man, an illegal immigrant who had been previously ordered removed from the country, after he was accused of choking and harassing someone and arrested, arraigned and released in Yonkers. When they found and arrested him, he bit one of them.

"This man assaulted an ICE officer in the process of the arrest and now will face the consequences of his actions,” said Thomas Decker, field office director for ERO New York. “Every time a jurisdiction does not honor a detainer, it places an unnecessary danger to our officers, and this is a prime example of what it may look like to arrest someone on the streets when they could have easily been turned over in a secure facility."

ICE officials allege that sanctuary policies, which have pushed ICE out of jails, force their officers to conduct more enforcement in the community – which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public. They also allege it also increases the likelihood that ICE will encounter other illegal aliens who previously were not on their radar.

ICE officials argue that it makes more sense to devote resources to jails to solely focus on criminals, reducing the broader enforcement efforts and allowing the apprehension of individuals with the secure confines of local jails.

Detainers are a legally-authorized request to continue to maintain custody of an alien for up to 48 hours so that ICE may assume custody for removal purposes. Pursuant to ICE policy, all ICE detainers are submitted with an accompanying administrative arrest warrant or warrant of removal depending upon the circumstances of the individual case.

Here's the sequence of events, ICE officials said:

Cruz-Garcia was arrested July 6, 2017, by the Yonkers Police Department and charged with criminal obstruction of breathing or blood circulation – apply pressure, assault in the second degree: intent to cause physical injury with a weapon, and harassment in the second degree: physical contact. Fingerprint impressions were also taken at that time. Those fingerprints matched ICE records for an alien who had been previously been ordered removed from the U.S. The following day, Cruz-Garcia was arraigned in Yonkers City Court and released on his own recognizance.

On July, 23, 2017, ERO deportation officers in Yonkers, New York, targeted and arrested the 31-year-old. As he was being escorted to an ICE vehicle, Cruz-Garcia began to flail his arms, and kick his legs, before biting the arm of an ERO deportation officer.

On Aug. 10, 2017, ERO deportation officers assigned to the Violent Criminal Alien Section filed a criminal complaint in U.S District Court, charging Cruz-Garcia with one count of 18 USC 111(a)(1), for assaulting, resisting, or impeding a law enforcement officer. Cruz-Garcia was arraigned and subsequently remanded to U.S. Marshals Service custody.

On March 8, Cruz-Garcia pleaded guilty. On June 12, he was sentenced to a year in federal custody. He will be transferred back to ICE custody at the conclusion of his sentence for removal to Honduras.

PHOTO: ICE arrest/ USICE