QuickTake:

The men were among seven suspects arrested by Eugene police earlier this month in connection with an alleged burglary ring. At least two of them were arrested by ICE as they left the Lane County Jail, after being released on bail.

Federal immigration authorities have taken into custody four burglary defendants from Colombia who are charged in Lane County as part of a wider investigation into a string of break-ins targeting Asian American households, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said.

The date given for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests, Oct. 15, matches the date of what a Lane County Sheriff’s Office memo referred to as a “Lobby Incident.”

The memo described a person wearing a “POLICE Federal Agent” ballistic vest, with help from others in plain clothes, taking into custody one man in the public lobby of the jail and another outside the jail. Both had just been released from jail.

Sheriff Carl Wilkerson told Lookout Eugene-Springfield last Thursday that he was able to later confirm that ICE officers took the men into custody. Wilkerson said the sheriff’s office did not share information with ICE about the men’s release. He said he didn’t know of any other times when ICE agents detained someone leaving the jail.

The latest statement from the Department of Homeland Security, provided Sunday to Lookout Eugene-Springfield, refers to two additional arrests on the same day but provides few other details.

“On October 15, ICE arrested four criminal illegal aliens from Colombia who have collectively committed approximately TWENTY home invasions and burglaries over the past several months,” a Homeland Security spokesperson said.

The four burglary defendants are among seven men arrested by Eugene police after officers executed a search warrant at an Airbnb on Oct. 9. Police said they had evidence linking the men to a home burglary in the Bethel neighborhood, and investigators suspected a connection to a string of burglaries dating back more than a year targeting Asian American households.

None of the defendants has been proven guilty. None has been charged with more than one count of burglary.

A search of an ICE database showed two of the burglary defendants, 34-year-old Derinson Martinez-Grandas and 31-year-old Robinson Camacho-Rodriguez, listed as being in custody at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington.

None of the other burglary suspects appeared in an online search of the database Monday. Court records show some of the suspects have been known by alternate names, so it’s possible that ICE records differ from names listed in Lane County Circuit Court documents.

Only one of the seven burglary defendants, Edwin Andres Cadena-Pineda, 48, remains at the Lane County Jail. The other six posted $10,000 to meet their $100,000 security bond requirement. All seven burglary suspects have a court hearing on the burglary charges set for Nov. 17.

Detainer requests

The Sunday statement from the Department of Homeland Security also said: “The Eugene Police Department arrested these criminal illegal aliens, then ignored ICE detainers and RELEASED them back on the streets to continue terrorizing Oregon communities.”

ICE detainer requests ask local authorities to either keep a person in custody so that deportation officers can make an arrest, or give notification of an inmate’s future release date and time.

However, records released by the Lane County Sheriff’s Office for detainer requests submitted this summer show jail officials replying with a statement, “Pursuant to ORS 181A.820, we are unable to fulfill this request.” The legal reference is to Oregon’s sanctuary law, which generally prohibits state and local police from assisting with immigration enforcement unless presented with a judicial warrant.

Eugene police do not have authority over the Lane County Jail, which is run by the Lane County Sheriff’s Office.

The Homeland Security spokesperson continued: “Worse, all of these criminal illegal aliens were released into the United States by the previous administration. Under Secretary Noem (Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security) sanctuary jurisdictions will not deter America’s brave ICE officers from restoring the rule of law and from keeping our communities safe by removing the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens.”

Public safety forum

The Asian American Council of Oregon organized a public safety forum about the burglaries last week. Police and prosecutors said data shows Asian American households being targeted in Eugene and elsewhere in the state. Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner noted that the homes of business owners have been targeted.

The Asian American Council of Oregon “is grateful for the hard work and efforts of our local law enforcement and Lane County district attorney,” the organization said in a statement when asked for comment about the ICE arrests.

An organizer of the Oct. 23 public safety forum, Jensina Hawkins, expressed some uneasiness with the ICE burglary defendant arrests in a text message in which said she was speaking only for herself and not on behalf of the council.

“Even though I want criminals to be put away, all of the suspects are innocent until proven guilty. Sentencing without due process is a slippery slope, and I would prefer to stay far away from that,” said Hawkins, formerly a chairperson of Eugene’s Police Commission, a volunteer citizens’ advisory board.

Lane County District Attorney Christopher Parosa, speaking after the Oct. 23 public safety forum where he served as a panelist, described to Lookout Eugene-Springfield the prosecution of the burglary defendants.

Parosa said that if any burglary suspects land in federal custody — at that time, no confirmation from ICE had been provided — he would formally request federal authorization to prosecute any suspects detained by ICE.

“From my perspective, I don’t want to see them just simply deported. I want to hold them accountable for the crimes they committed in my community,” Parosa said. But he added that he was uncertain what would result from such a request.

“The problem with immigration is, if the federal government goes first, they can execute the deportation before we can actually get them back into state custody to prosecute. So that’s the concern I now have,” Parosa said.