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The Biden administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are refusing to kick out an illegal immigrant who allegedly drew swastikas in Washington, DC’s Union Station citing “sanctuary city” policies even though he has been deported four times previously.
Geraldo Pando, who is a Mexican national, was busted in January for vandalism after allegedly carving crude swastikas on almost every column in the station. He drew the abhorrent Nazi symbols just a day after International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s being investigated as a possible “hate crime.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington posted a statement via Instagram calling the timing “particularly offensive” and added, “This anti-semitic and hateful symbol has no place in our society.”
An ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that Pando entered the U.S. illegally as a minor in 1990. He was arrested in 2006 in Colorado and then was departed in 2006, 2007, 2014, and 2017.
The Washington Examiner broke the story reporting on Pando’s lengthy criminal history which includes a 35-page rap sheet in Colorado for crimes ranging from drug possession to misdemeanor theft. ICE said they had not attempted to take him into custody after his arrest according to the media outlet.
A man arrested for vandalizing Washington's Union Station with swastikas is a Mexican national in the US illegally. He has a long criminal history & has been deported twice. However, he does not meet Biden administration standards for removal currently. https://t.co/hiw40wohcf
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) February 3, 2022
Pando had also been arrested a week before the Union Station incident for vandalizing the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters, according to a senior Senate aide who is familiar with Pando’s record.
ICE did not issue a detainer requesting to be informed when Pando was released from custody in order to initiate deportation proceedings either. The spokesperson cited DC’s status as a “non-cooperative jurisdiction.” That’s legalese for “sanctuary city.”
“ICE has not issued a detainer on Pando because the District of Columbia is a non-cooperative jurisdiction and the Washington D.C. jail is barred from honoring ICE detainers due to a federal District Court ruling, and city ordinance,” the spokesperson said.
Sure, he just likes to draw things on public buildings like #UnionStation and it has nothing to do with hating Jews
Nothing to see here folks, it's just "property damage," let's move along #AntiSemitism #Judeophobia https://t.co/qyA1tlJsY4
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) January 28, 2022
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called the incident “both shocking and unsettling.”
“This antisemitic and hateful symbol has no place in our city, and we stand united with the members of our Jewish community against antisemitism in all its forms,” she remarked, according to Breitbart.
Bowser stated that Union Station used a team of experts to remove the graffiti.
“The criminal who defaced Union Station with antisemitic symbols, Geraldo Pando, should not have been able to commit this act of hatred. He is a convicted felon and an unlawful migrant with a criminal history of deportations and arrests, including for assault on a first responder,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said in a statement given to the Washington Examiner.
“It is inexcusable that ICE did not process him and he was released back into the community to commit such a heinous crime,” railed Portman, who is the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “This administration’s poor policies and reluctance to remove criminals from our streets continue to result in additional harm to our country.”
There are hand-drawn swastikas all over the entrance to Union Station in DC. Almost every column: pic.twitter.com/3lUk8iL7Cx
— Bo Erickson Reuters (@BoKnowsNews) January 28, 2022
The failure to deport Pando once again highlights ICE being limited in their duties due to Biden administration policies involving “sanctuary cities” that brazenly protect illegal immigrants at both the state and local levels from federal immigration law.
The Biden administration has restricted ICE’s priorities to three categories that define an illegal immigrant that include recent border crossers, aggravated felons, and national security threats. Agents have been barred from making arrests and other enforcement actions in certain areas. Worksite enforcement raids have been prohibited.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has vigorously defended the administration’s policies. That also includes the policy that an individual’s illegal status is not grounds for enforcement action.
“We have fundamentally changed immigration enforcement in the interior,” Mayorkas proclaimed during an interview with CBS News in January.
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