The Sheriff Who’s Defying ICE
CHARLOTTE, N.C.—In 2006, Luis Pineda-Ancheta was arrested in Arizona; charged with illegal entry into the United States, a civil offense; and deported back to his native Honduras. At some point in the next 13 years—authorities don’t know when—he returned to the U.S. and ended up in North Carolina.
In April, a woman reported to police in Charlotte that Pineda-Ancheta had grabbed her and threatened to kill her. Eleven days later, the woman again complained to police that he had again attacked her. On May 15, police arrested Pineda-Ancheta and brought him to the Mecklenburg County detention center, where he was charged with one felony and five misdemeanors.
Any suspect goes through a palimpsest of systems when arrested. In this case, local police apprehended Pineda-Ancheta. He came before a state district-court judge, who set his bond and conditions of release, and was then locked up in a jail run by the Mecklenburg County sheriff’s office. When Pineda-Ancheta was arrested, his name was also entered into an FBI database, from which it is available to local, state, and federal law-enforcement officials.
When Immigration and Customs Enforcement matched his name with the 2006 deportation, it sent a request, known as a detainer, to MCSO, asking the sheriff to hold Pineda-Ancheta for up to 48 hours until ICE could come and arrest him, even if he posted his bond. If Pineda-Ancheta had been arrested the year before, that’s exactly what would have happened.
But Garry McFadden, the county’s new sheriff, was elected in November after campaigning on the promise to reduce MCSO’s cooperation with ICE. He told voters he would withdraw from the formal cooperation arrangement with ICE known as 287(g), and stop honoring the agency’s detainers—which are requests for voluntary cooperation, not criminal warrants. In December, the day after he was sworn in, McFadden formally put those policies in place.
That’s why Pineda-Ancheta walked out of the detention center in downtown Charlotte on May 17, after posting the $5,000 bond set by the judge. Five days later, the same woman called the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department again. She told police Pineda-Ancheta kidnapped her, stuffed a cloth in her mouth, placed a rope around her neck, and led her into a stand of trees—but he tripped, allowing her to escape.
On May 23, dozens of cops swarmed an apartment complex in South Charlotte. Pineda-Ancheta barricaded himself in an apartment, and then, police said, slipped into the walls of the building. When he was finally arrested on new felony charges, after nine hours, Pineda-Ancheta once again came before a district-court judge, who set bond of $65,000 and required electronic monitoring. Once again, ICE issued a detainer to MCSO. Once again, Pineda-Ancheta met the conditions for release and was set free.
By now, federal authorities and the sheriff were trading volleys in the press. Sean Gallagher, the regional head of ICE, blamed the second assault on McFadden. “I spoke directly to this point late last year and warned that the noncooperation policy would result in preventable crimes of violence taking place in Mecklenburg County,” he said. “Sadly, but predictably, this has now taken place.” The U.S. attorney said McFadden was making the county less safe and warned that someone would die. Local Republican politicians called on McFadden to resign. His predecessor, an erstwhile family friend, told me McFadden has made the community less safe.
For McFadden, the matter was simple: He believes detainers violate the Constitution, because they ask sheriffs to hold people, without probable cause, who have met a judge’s conditions for release. Because Pineda-Ancheta had crossed the border illegally after being deported, he had committed a felony, but McFadden said the sheriff’s office was never notified of the felony violation.
“All I’m asking ICE to do is this: Bring me a criminal warrant, and I’ll hold anybody for you,” McFadden told me on May 29.
