U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Gilberto Avila-Jara, an Ecuadorian man without valid documentation who has been charged with more than 20 counts of sex crimes against a minor, outside of Boston in the sanctuary city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, earlier this month.
Newsweek has reached out to the Boston mayor’s office and Lawrence’s mayor for comment via email on Saturday.
Why It Matters
ICE publicized the arrest on Friday via its website and social media, alongside comments from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem who pointed fingers at sanctuary cities. ICE said that local authorities “refused to honor the ICE detainer” it had issued for Avila-Jara in late 2020, raising concerns over jurisdiction and sanctuary city policies.
Avila-Jara’s detention comes amid an ongoing immigration crackdown by the Trump administration, which has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history and has detained and deported thousands of people in recent months.
President Donald Trump has targeted sanctuary cities and states since his return to the White House, as he and much of the Republican Party view them as barriers to federal immigration enforcement. Sanctuary cities, at times, may provide limited cooperation with ICE, in what advocates say is an effort to protect immigrants without legal status from law enforcement overreach.
ICE/AP Photo/Alex Brandon
What To Know
In a Friday statement on ICE’s website, the agency announced the arrest of 64-year-old Avila-Jara on April 1, writing it “arrested an illegally present Ecuadoran national charged with more than twenty counts of sex crimes against a minor.”
ICE said Avila-Jara first illegally arrived in the U.S. in 1996. He was then ordered to be removed to Ecuador, and at an “unknown date” he reentered the United States.
In 2020, ICE notes that the Lawrence District Court arraigned him for “more than 20 offenses including indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, rape of a child with force and aggravated statutory rape of a Child.” ICE subsequently “lodged an immigration detainer against Avila with the Lawrence Police Department,” however, the court “refused to honor the ICE detainer and released Avila from custody on bail March 17, 2021,” ICE said.
Noem shared the update and called out sanctuary cities, and specifically Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, citing Avila-Jara’s “pedophile” record.
Noem wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: “ICE Boston has arrested an illegal Ecuadoran national charged with more than 20 sex crimes against a MINOR. Does Boston’s Mayor Michelle Wu think these pedophiles are above the law? Imagine what our ICE officers could do without Sanctuary City policies that protect illegal alien criminals including child predators, murders, and rapists.”
The majority of sanctuary policies protecting immigrants are in blue cities and states. In March, Wu, along with three other mayors, testified to Congress over their different sanctuary laws and policies. Wu repeatedly called Boston the “safest major city in America” during the hearings and noted the essential nature of immigration to the city’s “key industries.”
Several studies, including from Northwestern University and Cato Institute, find that the conviction rate of immigrants is much lower than that of American-born citizens. “The illegal immigrant criminal conviction rate was 45 percent below that of native-born Americans in Texas,” a 2020 Cato Institute research paper found.
What People Are Saying
ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a statement publish Friday: “There are no appropriate words to describe the amount of damage Gilberto Avila-Jara has allegedly done to our Massachusetts community. Children are the most precious and most vulnerable members of our communities, and we will do everything in our power to protect them from illegal sex offenders. ICE Boston remains committed to prioritizing public safety by arresting and removing alien sexual predators from New England.”
ICE wrote in an X post on Friday: “Kids are safer today, thanks to ICE Boston officers.”
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said during a congressional hearing last month: “I’m the mayor of Boston. I don’t get to decide who comes into our country and where they go after that.”
She later noted: “Our job is to keep people fed and healthy and safe when they arrive in our city, and we do that in order to make sure that everyone across our community is safe. Resources are strained, but I would ask you to please do your job and be part of passing bipartisan legislation.”
President Donald Trump in a Thursday Truth Social post: “No more Sanctuary Cities! They protect the Criminals, not the Victims. They are disgracing our Country, and are being mocked all over the World. Working on papers to withhold all Federal Funding for any City or State that allows these Death Traps to exist!!!”
What Happens Next?
ICE is expected to continue carrying out mass raids and arrests. Trump has threatened to pull billions of dollars of federal funding from sanctuary cities, which could drastically affect their ability to offer services from health care to education to social services.