Justice Department investigating CNY sheriff for releasing migrant despite federal warrant

Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove said Thursday that the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office released Jesus Romero-Hernandez, a 27-year-old man from Mexico who was in the country illegally. 

Romero-Hernandez was in the Tompkins County Jail while facing a third-degree assault charge. He pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to time served. 

Before the local case was resolved, a federal criminal complaint was filed on Jan. 8 charging Romero-Hernandez with illegally reentering the U.S. after a prior removal, according to the Department of Justice. 

While Romero-Hernandez was in custody, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement provided the federal arrest warrant to the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office, which oversees the local jail. 

But the Department of Justice says the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office refused to honor the warrant. After Romero-Hernandez's sentencing, he was released before federal authorities arrived to transport him to federal court for his arraignment. 

In his statement, Bove noted that the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office is located in Ithaca, which is a sanctuary city. The city's Common Council recently voted to reaffirm its status as a sanctuary city. 

Ithaca has been a sanctuary city since 2017.

ICE arrested Romero-Hernandez with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service and Homeland Security Investigations. Bove said federal agents "risked their safety and pursued the defendant in unsafe conditions." More information wasn't provided about the events surrounding Romero-Hernandez's apprehension. 

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York, which includes Tompkins and other counties in central New York, is reviewing the sheriff's decision to release Romero-Hernandez before federal agents could take him into custody. 

"I applaud the U.S. attorney's commitment to investigate these circumstances for potential prosecution, and the efforts of the agents who were able to arrest the defendant under wholly avoidable circumstances," Bove said. "The Justice Department will not tolerate actions that endanger law enforcement and make their jobs harder than they already are, as they work to protect us all." 

Bove added, "We will use every tool at our disposal to prevent sanctuary city policies from impeding and obstructing lawful federal operations designed to make America safe again and end the national crisis arising from four years of failed immigration policy." 

The Tompkins County Sheriff's Office, led by Sheriff Derek Osborne, has not commented on the situation involving Romero-Hernandez and his release. 

There has been increased immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump is planning mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. ICE raids have been reported in several areas of the country, including upstate New York. 

Trump recently signed the Laken Riley Act, a bill named for a Georgia woman who was murdered by a Venezuelan man who had entered the U.S. illegally.

The law will require undocumented immigrants to be detained if they are accused of certain crimes, including assaulting a police officer, burglary, theft, or "any crime that causes death or serious bodily injury," according to the Department of Homeland Security.