But, but, but… this never happens! </sarcasm>
Don’t forget: Oregon has an immigrant sanctuary law.
Federal officers have accused authorities in Oregon of preventing them from taking a Mexican national into custody before he was released in a domestic violence case and went on to be charged with murder.
Martin Gallo-Gallardo, who was in the U.S. illegally, posted bond in March and was released from jail in Portland when his wife and a daughter stopped cooperating with prosecutors and a grand jury declined to indict him, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Friday.
Authorities in nearby Clackamas County arrested and charged him this week with killing his wife and dumping her body in a ditch.
His court-appointed attorney, Thomas Hanrahan, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it placed a civil detainer on Gallo-Gallardo, 45, while he was still in custody in Portland and wanted to take him into federal custody for deportation, but the request was not recognized by the sheriff’s office.The case spotlights Oregon’s first-in-the nation immigrant sanctuary law just as voters will decide Tuesday whether to repeal it. Oregon adopted the law in 1987 to prevent law enforcement from detaining people who are in the U.S. illegally but have not broken other laws.