Two alleged child predators to be deported back to Jamaica
According to the Boston Herald, March 7, 2024, Enforcement and Removal Operations: (ERO) Boston confirmed the arrest within their jurisdiction of two Jamaican nationals convicted of sex crimes against children.
The first was a 30-year-old convicted of sexual assault and battery on a Massachusetts resident, who the ERO arrested on Feb. 12 in Barnstable. According to ICE, the man was arrested in Barnstable in August 2022 and charged with assault to rape a child and two counts each of indecent assault and battery on person over 14 years of age and distributing obscene material to a minor. He pleaded guilty to the two counts of indecent assault and battery at Barnstable District Court in November 2023, for which he was sentenced to three years of supervised probation.
ICE says that the man entered the U.S. in May 2017 in Charlotte, N.C., on a a nonimmigrant visa that permitted him to remain in the United States until April 11, 2018 — but that he failed to leave by the expiration date.
The second was another Jamaican, this time a 61-year-old man that ERO agents arrested in Hartford, Conn., on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14.
The Jamaican national was granted temporary admittance to the United States as a nonimmigrant in 1987. He violated the terms of his admission by remaining in the country beyond his visa’s expiration date. The Jamaican noncitizen was charged locally with driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs and with attempting to fraudulently obtain a passport under a false identity by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in November 1997.
According to the US immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), he was convicted in Hartford Judicial District Court of sexual assault of a minor child in May 2018, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released from prison on probation after serving seven years of his sentence. ERO Boston lodged an immigration detainer against him with the State of Connecticut Department of Corrections in February 2017, but the facility did not honor it and released the Jamaican national into the community.
“This unlawfully present Jamaican national represented a threat to the children of our New England communities,” said ERO Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons. “Any unlawfully present sex offender constitutes a significant threat to public safety. ERO Boston will continue to prioritize the safety of our residents by removing such predators from our New England neighborhoods.”
ICE says the agency lodged an immigration detainer against him but the Connecticut Department of Corrections released him after only seven years of his sentence without notifying ICE.
Deportation officers with ERO Boston arrested him without incident in Hartford Feb. 14. He will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.