Federal immigration authorities criticized the Howard County Detention Center this week for twice releasing a Honduran national convicted of rape, but local officials say a county law barred them from detaining him.

Alex Yonatan Flores-Arce, 20, pleaded guilty April 29 to a second-degree rape charge in Howard County Circuit Court after he was charged with raping a 17-year-old girl in October 2023.

The two had been in a relationship and Flores-Arce wanted to get back together with her. While parked at an international food market on Town and Country Boulevard in Ellicott City, the teen tried to leave to walk home.

She told authorities Flores-Arce pulled her into the back seat and raped her. The incident was captured on security footage and DNA collected during the victim’s sexual assault forensic exam matched to Flores-Arce.

He was sentenced to 15 years of incarceration, with all but 193 days suspended — essentially time he already served — and five years supervised probation. The court stipulated that Flores-Arce must register as a Tier III sex offender.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they asked the county’s Department of Corrections in January to detain Flores-Arce but later saw their request ignored when he was released May 5.

Margaret Chippendale, the county’s corrections director, did not return messages seeking comment Wednesday.

Flores-Arce failed to check in with parole and probation officials after his release and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest, according to the Howard State’s Attorney’s Office. County police apprehended Flores-Arce on May 8 and brought new charges.

Court records show Flores-Arce posted bond May 22 and was released again against the wishes of immigration enforcement officials. This time, ICE Baltimore’s fugitive operations team took him into custody as he walked out of the detention center. Immigration enforcement officials then issued a statement Tuesday criticizing the county’s actions.

Releasing “a removable individual with an egregious criminal history undermines public safety and put Maryland communities at risk,” said Nikita Baker, acting director of ICE’s Baltimore field office.

“This failure is not an isolated incident but part of a concerning pattern we see all too often,” Baker said.

At issue are the detainer requests ICE makes to local jurisdictions if someone they arrested also is accused of being in the country illegally. The requests call for officials to hold people for up to 48 hours after their scheduled release so ICE can pick them up.

Local jurisdictions across Maryland handle the requests differently. Some honor them, while others have formal and informal policies against such cooperation.

Working with ICE is one thing Howard County leaders said they legally cannot do. In December 2020, the County Council passed the Liberty Act, which prohibits the use of county resources for:

• Enforcing federal immigration and nationality laws or assisting immigration enforcement;
• Helping with enforcement by collecting or sharing a person’s information;
• Asking a person about their citizenship, nationality or immigration status or the status of another person;
• Sharing a person’s status with another person.

The law was upheld by 64% of voters through a 2022 ballot question, county spokeswoman Safa Hira said in an email.

The county government is unaware of any laws that would preempt the Liberty Act and require it to hold a person past a court-set release date, Hira said.

“We would welcome ICE to bring it to our attention, as it is our intention to stay in compliance with federal law,” Hira said.

A representative for ICE’s Baltimore field office declined to comment on the county’s statement, citing timing constraints.

The Office of the Maryland Public Defender, which is representing Flores-Arce, pushed back against the public criticism by federal immigration officials.

“When an ICE arrest disrupts the state legal proceedings, due process is lost and justice is denied to everyone — the client and the community,” public defender Natasha M. Dartigue said in a statement. “Laws and policies that ensure an individual’s immigration status does not affect the ability to proceed with a fair trial in the state court are essential to the functioning of our criminal legal system.”

Hira said county leaders cannot speak to the circumstances of Flores-Arce’s release but pointed out that he was convicted as a result of the combined efforts of county police and the state’s attorney’s office.

The exchange comes amid a larger debate over the Trump administration’s aggressive actions to deport immigrants who don’t have authorization to be in the United States. The effort has drawn criticism from federal courts for failing to provide due process. A Maryland man was mistakenly deported without a hearing to El Salvador and now sits in a prison there, despite court orders to return him.

Meanwhile, officials in Democrat-led Howard County have faced mounting pressure from the new Republican administration.

A group led by Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is credited with crafting the policy that separated thousands of migrant children from their families during Trump’s first term, sent a letter to Howard County in late December threatening penalties for policies “concealing, harboring or shielding” immigrants.

County officials insist the Liberty Act does not curtail law enforcement’s ability to enforce state and local criminal laws and assist federal law enforcement in criminal investigations. Hira said county police are permitted to work on criminal task forces, even if their work includes immigration enforcement, provided that Howard County resources are not used and the police follow the law’s other requirements.

Still, ICE’s statement this week concerned advocates with the Luminus Network for New Americans, which serves immigrants in central Maryland.

What troubled Luminus CEO Gabriel Moreno was not Flores-Arce’s arrest, but the way ICE appears to weaponize individual cases in the media and fuel anti-immigrant sentiment, he said in an email.

“The ICE press release follows a familiar playbook,” he said. “Highlight the worst possible case, use charged language about ‘illegally present’ individuals, blame local jurisdictions for following their own policies, and create an atmosphere of fear that impacts millions of law-abiding immigrants who contribute positively to our society every single day.”

Policies and laws such as Howard County’s exist to encourage immigrant communities to report crimes and cooperate with police without fear, Moreno said.

ICE’s statement this week presents the public with a distorted picture that harms the community, he said.

“When immigrant families are afraid to send their children to school, seek medical care, or report domestic violence because they fear any interaction could lead to deportation, we all become less safe,” he said.

Moreno encouraged residents to “look beyond” the critical narrative and get to know immigrant families.

“You’ll find teachers, healthcare workers, business owners, and neighbors who enrich our lives immeasurably,” he said. “They deserve better than to be defined by the actions of one individual.”

The U.S. Border Patrol first encountered Flores near El Paso, Texas, in March 2019.

Flores-Arce, who is now in federal custody in Pennsylvania, is scheduled to appear July 25 in Howard County Circuit Court for a probation violation hearing.