PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A Guatemalan man previously convicted of child molestation and sexual assault was taken into custody by deportation officers last month, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) .

The 55-year-old man, who has not yet been identified, was arrested on April 17 in Providence.

ICE said the man unlawfully entered the United States without inspection in 2008 and has remained in the country without proper authorization ever since.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) first lodged a detainer against the man back in August 2018, shortly after he was arrested and charged with first-degree child molestation and sexual assault.

He was convicted on those charges in December 2022 and sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to ICE. His sentence was later reduced to six years with the remaining 19 suspended.

The man was taken into custody on the detainer once he completed his sentence last month, after the R.I. Department of Corrections notified ERO Boston that he was being released.

The man will remain in ICE custody pending a future hearing before an immigration judge.

“This unlawfully present Guatemalan national has been convicted of sex crimes against a minor,” ERO Boston Director Todd Lyons said. “He has already violated U.S. immigration laws, and we will not allow him back out into our Rhode Island neighborhoods to re-offend.”

“When local jurisdictions cooperate with immigration enforcement as happened in this case, the community is stronger and safer,” he continued. “ERO Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by apprehending and removing the most egregious offenders in order to make our New England communities safer.”

This comes as Rhode Island’s ICE cooperation policy faces scrutiny. ICE agents arrested two other Guatemalan men on child molestation charges earlier this year for illegally entering the country without being inspected. Both men were released on bail despite being wanted by immigration authorities, and ICE has since criticized the state’s policy on detainers.

ICE agents also took a Honduran homicide suspect into custody in Warwick earlier this year upon learning he had been charged with felony assault and released on bail, as well as a Nigerian man convicted of indecent solicitation of a child .

Gov. Dan McKee’s office has repeatedly emphasized that the state is complying with a 2014 federal court ruling by Rhode Island U.S. District Judge John McConnell. That decision determined the state can’t hold someone in custody based upon an ICE detainer alone.

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