An illegal alien from El Salvador let his 14-month-old stepchild drown in a bathtub, and the only thing standing between him and release back onto American streets is whether North Carolina officials bother to honor an ICE detainer. That's where we are: federal immigration agents have to practically beg local law enforcement to hold a man charged with murdering an American toddler.
Angel Israel Deras-Rivas, 19, was arrested Sunday in Garner, North Carolina, and charged with murder and felony child abuse after allegedly leaving the toddler unattended in a filled bathtub, according to an arrest warrant cited by The Raleigh News & Observer. DHS identified him as a criminal illegal alien who unlawfully crossed into Texas in October 2023 — only to be released into the country by the Biden administration. He married the child's mother in April, just months before the child's death.
ICE filed a detainer with the Wake County Sheriff's Department the same day Deras-Rivas was arrested, requesting that local officials hold him for up to 48 hours beyond his scheduled release so federal agents can take custody. That ICE has to formally request this — rather than local officials automatically turning over a murder suspect — tells you everything about the sanctuary jurisdiction shell game that shields illegal aliens from federal immigration enforcement.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin didn't mince words. "That child would still be alive today if it weren't for the reckless open-border policies of the Biden administration that released this criminal into our country in the first place," he said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "ICE is calling on officials in North Carolina to commit to not releasing this killer from jail, and to turn him over to ICE custody so we can get him out of our country."
This isn't an isolated case. The same week, DHS announced the results of Operation Muddy Waters in Mississippi, a two-week crackdown that netted 70 arrests for child exploitation — including multiple illegal immigrants. Among them: a Honduran national who allegedly traveled from Tennessee to Mississippi to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor; a Bangladeshi national on a student visa at the University of Alabama who allegedly communicated with a 14-year-old boy; and two Mexican nationals who were previously convicted sex offenders, one for a felony sexual offense against a child in 2022, now non-compliant.
Fox News framed the North Carolina case around the Biden administration's release policies and the ICE detainer process. The New York Post focused its coverage on the Mississippi operation and the scope of child exploitation arrests. Neither outlet pressed the question of accountability for the local officials who make sanctuary policies possible, or the judges and administrators who release convicted sex offenders back into communities where they offend again.
A 14-month-old is dead. A 19-year-old illegal alien who should never have been in the country is charged with the killing. And the system that let both things happen — from the federal release to the local non-cooperation — faces no consequences at all. The question isn't whether ICE can get custody of this one killer. It's how many more American children will die before the officials who protect these policies are held to account.
