Sanctuary Outrage: Criminal alien arrested in two murders after California released him repeatedly

The recent arrest of a criminal alien on two murder charges came after multiple instances in which Immigration and Customs and Enforcement had lodged immigration detainers only to see him released by California authorities, officials said.

"The alleged perpetrator, Fernando De Jesus Lopez-Garcia, is a repeat immigration offender with a significant criminal history spanning back nearly 15 years that includes convictions for battery of a spouse, assault with a deadly weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, battery of an officer, and vandalism," ICE said in a press release Wednesday. 

ICE recently lodged a detainer on Monday following the arrest Sunday "for two counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, battery on a spouse or cohabitant and violation of a protective order," according to ICE. 

Prior to the Sunday arrest there have been multiple instances in which ICE lodged immigration detainers but De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was released.

“Our deepest condolences go out the victims and their families in this case,” San Francisco ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Field Office Director David Jennings said. “Here we have catastrophic proof of the abject failure of California’s sanctuary policies. The only person this policy protected was a criminal; permitting him to reoffend over and over again. Had those immigration detainers been honored, or had ICE been notified on any of the other multiple occasions he was arrested and released from local jails, we would have taken him into custody. Regrettably, politics continues to prevail over public safety, the detainers were ignored, and De Jesus Lopez-Garcia was released to the street.”

The press release noted that ICE frequently does not know that a criminal alien is in custody before that alien gets released.

"Due to sanctuary policies removing ICE’s access to local databases, pushing ICE agents out of jails and the associated political pressure discouraging local law enforcement from effectively communicating with federal immigration officials, ICE is often times unaware of a criminal alien being in custody prior to them being released," the press release noted. "These misguided policies hinder ICE’s ability to lodge immigration detainers in a timely manner."