By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Janet
Napolitano told a Senate panel Wednesday that she was not consulted
about the case of an illegal immigrant and registered sex offender
before he was arrested in December.
Napolitano said she learned about the case against
Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta after The Associated Press wrote about it
last year.
Sanchez, a registered sex offender in New Jersey,
was working as an unpaid intern for Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., when
he was identified by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials as an
illegal immigrant eligible for deportation.
According to internal ICE documents provided to the
Senate Judiciary Committee, agents were ready to arrest Sanchez in late
October but were ordered to delay the arrest after superiors were told
that the case could generate "significant Congressional and media
interest." Sanchez was arrested in early December.
A U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of
anonymity to discuss the case, told the AP last year that the Department
of Homeland Security ordered that the arrest be delayed until after the
November election. DHS has denied the allegation.
On Wednesday, Napolitano did not address the
specific reasons that led officials to delay Sanchez's arrest. She said
the real issue was why Sanchez, 18, was not arrested by federal
authorities in 2010, when ICE was first notified of his sex offense.
Sanchez, who came to the United States on a visitor
visa good for six months, was arrested by New Jersey law enforcement on
in October 2009 on state charges of aggravated sexual assault. He was
later found to have violated the law and sentenced to probation and
required to register as a sex offender.
According to the internal ICE documents, local
prosecutors in New Jersey notified ICE about Sanchez sometime between
March and May 2010. The documents show that the officer who received the
notification determined that because Sanchez was a juvenile at the time
of the offense, the case needed "additional research to determine
removability." The case was put aside "in order to focus on
high-priority cases that were ready for immediate action," the documents
show.
"The more significant issue was what happened in
those two years and why wasn't the removal made then," Napolitano told
the Senate panel.
Sanchez has been released from immigration detention and is facing deportation. He has declined to comment on his case.
Menendez said he was not aware of Sanchez's arrest record or his immigration status until after he was arrested.
Copyright 2013 The
Associated Press modified.
Janet Napolitano
