Prince George’s County police released a previously deported illegal immigrant with a violent criminal history on his own recognizance in September after charging him with assault and disturbing the peace, federal officials said in court documents.
Federal authorities were led to Diego Zacarias Vasquez’s Mount Rainier home after receiving a tip from a source in Fairfax County that Vasquez was in the country illegally, according to a sworn statement by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Yusuf Adeen. Vasquez was arrested Thursday on charges of illegal re-entry and is being held without bail.
The Guatemalan native is believed to be a member of the violent street gang “Vatos Locos,” Adeen wrote.
In 2000, Vasquez , now 27, was twice convicted and jailed in the District during a six-month span for attempted theft and attempting to obtain a handgun. He was not deported.
Vasquez was deported to Guatemala on Jan. 7, 2006, after serving time for a 2003 Montgomery County conviction of first-degree assault and using a handgun in a violent crime, Adeen wrote.
Vasquez was arrested again in September by Prince George’s police on charges of second-degree assault and disturbing the peace, and was released, Adeen wrote. He then missed a December court date and a warrant was issued for his arrest, Prince George’s court records show.
Prince George’s police are required to check the names of people they arrest against a national database, spokesman Maj. Andrew Ellis said. If the check proves ICE has placed an immigration warrant on the suspect, then police are required to notify the federal agency.
According to Adeen’s statement, county police identified Vasquez by his fingerprints and his FBI record before releasing him. It is unclear, however, whether details regarding Vasquez’s deportation and status as an illegal immigrant were available to county police in September.
Had police checked with ICE directly, they would have learned of Vasquez’s past, Adeen wrote.
“The release of [Vasquez] by Prince George’s police without any type of minimal check with Immigration and Customs Enforcement highlights the failed policies in the District, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties,” said Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland, a group that supports tougher immigration policies.
Prince George’s County has one of the most relaxed approaches to immigration enforcement in the area, Ellis said. Officers there are governed by a 2003 County Council resolution directing them to “refrain from enforcing immigration matters.”
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