OPINION

EDITORIAL: ICE-Middlesex County dispute about politics, not public safety

Earlier this year, 23-year-old Luis Rodrigo Perez was released from the Middlesex County Jail.

Now Perez is accused of murdering three people in Missouri.

It’s a tragic story, the kind that makes us all wonder how someone like Perez could be allowed back into society. But Perez had served his time. He had no major offenses on his record. Authorities had no overriding reason to believe Perez presented any unusual threat to the public at the time of his release.

But there was a kicker to all of this. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was targeting Perez as an illegal immigrant. Agency officials issued a “detainer” requesting Perez be held beyond his release date. County officials were reluctant; they had already established a policy that such detainers would not be honored for an inmate without any prior first- or second-degree offenses who had not been subject to any previous Order for Deportation.

But they still kept Perez for another 51 days. When ICE made no further effort toward obtaining a deportation order, according to county officials, Perez was released.

That, according to ICE, makes Middlesex County culpable for the killings allegedly committed by Perez. County officials countered that ICE had its chance to secure Perez, but didn’t bother. There has been public bickering about the process of obtaining deportation orders. The county has been deliberately obtuse about the nature of charges against Perez, including why he had been in jail. The two sides can’t even agree on whether Middlesex County is an outlier in its resistance to the detainers; ICE says it is, but Middlesex officials point to several other regions, including Union, Ocean, Camden and Burlington counties, that do not honor detainers.

In the end, however, it’s hard to escape the scent of Trumpian bigotry in this story. ICE insists it’s about public safety, not politics, but Perez was no different from any other inmate with the same criminal background – except for the illegal-immigrant brand. And we know what that brand means in the Age of Trump – the root of all evil.

Perez was locked up. Maybe he could have been deported before allegedly taking three lives. We grieve for the victims and their families, and we can understand if survivors believe Middlesex County should have heeded ICE’s wishes. Perez will now serve as one of the poster children for draconian deportation policies.

But there’s more involved here than one heinous crime. The vast majority of the illegal immigrants being targeted aren’t like Perez at all. They are typically law-abiding, hard-working contributors to our society. We don’t, however, often hear about those examples, certainly not from President Trump and his supporters.

State Attorney General Gurbir Grewal plans an updated directive with more guidance on proper law enforcement roles on immigration. That, we hope, will establish clearer boundaries reducing departmental conflicts. But there remains a balance to be struck. Illegal immigrants cannot just be tossed aside because of outrage over one terrible tragedy.