CHARLOTTE — Mecklenburg County Sheriff Gary McFadden is pushing back against ICE administrators after a Channel 9 report about an undocumented immigrant being arrested in Charlotte.
Channel 9′s Joe Bruno embedded with ICE earlier this month to learn more about their operations, and our crew was there when ICE arrested Jose Napoleon-Serrano.
Napoleon-Serrano is a Honduran citizen who has already been deported twice. He was recently arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence, and assault on a female. When the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested him, ICE issued a detainer to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office requesting to hold him for 48 hours.
According to records obtained by Channel 9, Napoleon-Serrano was held for 48 hours and then released from the Mecklenburg County Jail.
ICE says the sheriff’s office should have called them to let them know about Napoleon-Serrano’s release, but McFadden says he thinks the law doesn’t require him to call ICE.
“It’s frustrating because this could be a very easy transaction at the jail if they were honoring our detainers,” ICE Chief of Staff Maria Somers told Bruno in Charlotte.
On Thursday, McFadden said he followed the law in Napoleon-Serrano’s case and held him for 48 hours.
McFadden shared a timeline of Napoleon-Serrano’s custody in Mecklenburg County:
- 5:35 a.m. Jan. 12 - Napoleon-Serrano’s arrest by CMPD
- 6:09 a.m. Jan. 12 - MCSO notifies ICE of arrest with no response
- 11:18 a.m. Jan. 13 - MCSO receives ICE detainer, and a 48-hour hold was signed and issued
- 11:18 a.m. Jan. 15 - 48 hours after the ICE detainer was issued, the court order was lifted but Napoleon-Serrano remained in custody on his initial charges with a $5,000 bond
- 12:14 p.m. Jan. 17 - Napoleon-Serrano posted bond and he was released from custody
The sheriff’s office says ICE was aware of Napoleon-Serrano’s status from Jan. 12-17.
“ICE is more than welcome to pick up the phone - we will always remain transparent about a person’s release, but nowhere in House Bill 10 does it mandate local sheriffs to notify ICE of an individual’s release,” the sheriff’s office said Thursday.
McFadden says he “questions why ICE didn’t charge [Napoleon]-Serrano with federal offenses [improper entry by alien] and [re-entry of deported alien] instead of putting the burden on local sheriffs.”
We’re reaching out to ICE for a response to McFadden’s comments.
Napoleon-Serrano was taken into custody by ICE again in early February. He was taken to an ICE field office in Charlotte for processing.
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