"They're punishing law enforcement officers who are just trying to uphold U.S. law," said Chris Crane, president of the National ICE Council. Crane is a union representative acting on the unidentified officer's behalf.
The officer under fire is an 18-year law enforcement and military veteran.
On March 27 he and another officer were conducting surveillance on a vehicle in Newark, Del. with plates that were registered to a criminal alien target. During the surveillance, they observed an individual get into the vehicle. The person was detained, questioned and taken to an ICE office so that his fingerprints could be run through a federal database.
The individual was not their criminal alien target. However, he was a 35-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who had ten previous traffic violations – including driving without a license.
"The officer made the determination using prosecutorial discretion that he would charge (the suspect) as being in the United States illegally and let the judge sort it out," Crane said.
Instead, two supervising officers, including the acting field director, intervened and ordered the officer to release the illegal immigrant. The acting field director sat down with the illegal and explained that he was going to be let go because he was not a "presidential priority," Crane said.
In essence, the supervising officers took on the role of a public defender.
"You had the supervisors intervening with the alien to assist the alien and counsel the alien on avoiding receiving a charging document," he said.
The officer's supervisors ordered the officer to release the illegal – an order the officer refused.
According to a "Notice of Proposed Suspension," dated July 19, the officer "failed to follow these supervisory instructions, when you arrested a non-targeted alien who did not appear to meet any of the ICE priorities."
A memorandum from Assistant Field Office Director David O'Neill, written the morning of the incident, reveals that the officers were told to release the subject even though he was in the country illegally.
As a result of disobeying the order to release a known criminal, the officer faces a three-day suspension and could ultimately lose his job and pension if he arrests another illegal not on the Obama administration's priority list.
"They're willing to take away their retirement, their job, their ability to support their families in favor of someone who is here illegally and violating our laws,"
Ironically, the illegal alien in this particular incident was given better treatment than an American citizen would have been in similar circumstances.
A spokesman for the Newark Police Dept. told Fox News that if an American had been stopped on the same charges – they would have been put in jail. The spokesman said officers would have let the judge sort out the details.
The policy allows for discretion involving individuals who have not been convicted of a "felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise poses a threat to national security or public safety; and is not above the age of thirty."
The illegal immigrant in this case had 10 traffic violations and is 35-years-old.
