ICE asks North Carolina to hold illegal immigrant accused in toddler’s bathtub death

EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer against a criminal illegal alien who allegedly left a 14-month-old toddler to drown in a bathtub, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The ICE detainer asks North Carolina officials not to release Angel Israel Deras-Rivas, a Salvadoran national who was arrested Sunday in Garner.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin criticized the Biden administration’s immigration policies, arguing they contributed to the circumstances surrounding the case.

“This criminal illegal alien has been charged with murder and felony child abuse after letting a 14-month-old drown in a bathtub,” Mullin said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

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Deras-Rivas, 19, was caring for his stepchild when he allegedly left the toddler unattended in a bathtub filled with water, resulting in the child’s death, according to an arrest warrant cited by The Raleigh News & Observer. The incident happened just months after Deras-Rivas married the child’s mother in April, the outlet reported.

Immigration officials said Deras-Rivas, identified by DHS as a criminal illegal alien, unlawfully entered the United States through Texas in October 2023 and was released into the country by the Biden administration.

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“That child would still be alive today if it weren’t for the reckless open-border policies of the Biden administration that released this criminal into our country in the first place. ICE is calling on officials in North Carolina to commit to not releasing this killer from jail, and to turn him over to ICE custody so we can get him out of our country.”

Immigration officials said ICE filed the detainer with the Wake County Sheriff’s Department on the same day Deras-Rivas was arrested.

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An ICE detainer typically requests that local law enforcement notify the agency before an individual’s release and hold the person for up to 48 additional hours beyond a scheduled release date, allowing ICE agents time to take the individual into federal custody for potential removal proceedings.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Garner Police Department for more information.