A man accused of chaining his girlfriend's two children inside a home is an illegal immigrant who has previously been deported, federal immigration officials have confirmed.
Franklin Arquimedes Viera Guevara and his girlfriend, Wendy Del Cid Rodriguez, were arrested by police in Fairfax County, Virginia, on the evening of August 15th after responding to a report of a suspected child abuse incident. According to A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Guevara is a 29-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
According to an ICE spokesman, Border Patrol agents arrested Guevara in November 2018 after he entered the US illegally near McAllen, Texas, and deported him to his home country in February 2019. However, the Salvadoran national later re-entered the US at an unknown date and location.
According to Fox 5, one of the boys allegedly being held by Guevara took a photo of his chained ankles on his roommate's phone and sent the photo to his sister, who then called 911 and police were called to the scene. Guevara and his boyfriend reportedly told police they would regularly chain the children to “scare” them out of their apartment. (Related: Local police say illegal immigrant arrested in shootout has ties to Venezuelan gangs)
When police entered the home, they found two boys, ages 7 and 9, chained to a post next to the bed.
Police and emergency personnel gather at Gannett Headquarters, home to USA Today, in McLean, Virginia, on August 7, 2019. (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP/Getty Images)
Both Guevara and Rodriguez were charged with two counts of child abuse, two counts of child neglect and two counts of child abduction and booked into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, according to Fox 5. However, while Rodriguez has since been released on bail, her boyfriend remains in custody and is wanted by deportation officers.
ICE has filed an immigration detention order for Guevara with the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, a request that the detention center inform them before releasing Guevara so they can detain him, the agency confirmed to the DCNF. The request could lead to a new conflict between federal immigration authorities and Fairfax County. Fairfax County said:SanctuaryIt lost jurisdiction after repeatedly ignoring ICE's requests to detain him.
The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office previously confirmed to the DCNF that it does not enforce ICE detention orders without a judicial warrant.
Their policy of not enforcing detention orders without a court warrant has led to numerous altercations between the county and ICE, such as in July when ICE blasted Fairfax County officials for ignoring detention orders and releasing illegal immigrants convicted of having sex with minors back into the community. Later that month, the county's only Republican supervisor called for an end to the sanctuary policy after two local murder suspects were confirmed to be living in the country illegally.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares' office released a statement: Thursday He denounced sanctuary policies, argued that local and state law enforcement have the “authority and moral obligation” to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, and urged all jurisdictions in the state to honor detention requests.
“To those sheriffs who are already working with ICE on immigration issues, thank you,” Miyares said in a statement. “To those who refuse to cooperate with ICE, shame on you.”
The Fairfax County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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