On July 29th, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, Philadelphia, Homeland Security Investigations Philadelphia, and IRS Philadelphia announced that it had arrested Oscar Adalberto Penate, a 56-year-old citizen of El Salvador, in Pottstown on July 27th.
In the announcement, ICE shared that Penate claimed to have entered the United States in 1998 by crossing the border into Texas, and records showed he had pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, search, or transport in Texas in 2001.
ICE’s announcement about Penate however, focused on how Montgomery County released him following a July 22nd arrest in Pottstown on charges involving involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a person less than 16 years of age, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, two counts of indecent assualt of a person less than 13 years of age, two couts of corruption of minors by a defendant age 18 or above, and two counts of indecent assault without consent of the other party. All the charges are pending.
According to ICE, it had a detainer on Prenate, and despite that detainer, Prenate was released due to Montgomery County’s sanctuary policies.
“If the elected officials in Montgomery County are not going to protect the citizens of the county, we will,” said ICE ERO Philadelphia Field Office Director Brian McShane. “An illegal alien who committed a crime by unlawfully entering the United States, who is then charged with heinous crimes like this, should never be released to prey on the citizens of Montgomery County. The sanctuary policies recently enacted by the Montgomery County Commissioners forced prison officials to release this individual to the streets rather than turn him over to ICE officials on the detainer filed against him. I am just glad we got him before he could harm another.”
In June, the Montgomery County Corretional Facility announced that it would no longer honor administrative requests, including ICE detainers, and that going forward the facility would “require a judicial warrant before providing information about an individual’s release to ICE or any other authority.”
Following the policy change at the correctional facility, the Montgomery County Commissioners announced a policy impacting how all county employees could interact with federal immigration authorities. The new policy mandated that employees are not allowed to share anyone’s name, address, place of employment, immigration status, country of origin, government program participation, or any scheduled appointments, with ICE or any federal immigration agency, unless approved by the county’s solicitor. The county would also require a judicial warrant or judicially authorized subpoena before releasing anyone’s information to immigration agents.
Following his initial arrest, Prenate was arraigned on July 22nd, and Magisterial District Judge
Cathleen Kelly Rebar set bail at $75,000, which was posted through a professional bondsman on July 23rd.
The three Montgomery County Commissioners were offered an opportunity to respond to ICE’s statement, and we did not receive a response.
Penate will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
Photo: Prenate, provided by ICE