(The Center Square) – Another Houston girl has been killed allegedly by a Venezuelan illegally in the country.
On Dec. 1, a 7-year-old second-grader, Ivory Smith, was killed in a car accident in northeast Harris County by a drunk driver. Her mother was seriously injured.
The alleged driver, Joel Enrique Gonzalez Chacin, a 41-year-old Venezuelan national in the country illegally with a criminal record, was arrested for intoxicated manslaughter, according to Constable Mark Herman’s Office.
Ivory’s death occurred after Chacin was released from a county jail whose sheriff refuses to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was his second offense reported since June after a judge dropped a felony charge to a misdemeanor and he was released from jail.
Houston, the largest city in Texas, has been plagued by high crime for years due to it being the largest city closest to the border and primary destination for cartel operatives and illegal border crossers that commit violent crimes. In the last few years, judges have implemented policies to release alleged criminals into the community instead of sending them to jail, or reduce felony charges to misdemeanors. Additionally, since 2017, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has refused to cooperate with ICE, The Center Square reported.
In November, voters defeated many incumbent judges after a bipartisan coalition campaigned to replace them, highlighting victims killed by violent repeat offenders after they were released into the community by judges running for reelection. Unlike the judges, Gonzalez was reelected.
After Chacin was booked in the Harris County Jail on the intoxicated manslaughter charge, ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston office lodged a detainer request.
This was the second time a detainer request was lodged for him in less than six months. The first time was in June after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a family member. In that case, a judge dropped his felony charge to a misdemeanor, sentencing him to 113 days in jail, which was time already served, according to several news reports. Rather than notify ICE before he was released, in accordance with federal law, Chacon walked out of the court.
Two and a half months later, he allegedly drove drunk and crashed into the Smith’s vehicle.
“How can a system allow such leniency, where a person with such a record is given a chance to walk free and re-offend?” a family member asked, Fox 26 News reported. “Even more troubling is the fact that this individual was released after being detained earlier this year, only to find themselves back in custody after causing irreparable harm. Why do we have holds in place if they fail to keep dangerous individuals off our streets?
“The laws in Texas should be designed to protect innocent lives, not to provide loopholes for those who repeatedly disregard them. This tragedy is a stark reminder that we need stronger accountability and justice to prevent further suffering for families like ours. We will continue to demand answers and advocate for change so that no other family has to endure the pain, loss, and injustice that we are experiencing. Ivory’s light and legacy deserve better, and her memory will guide us as we work toward a safer future for all.”
The family has started a Go Fund Me page to help support costs and “seek justice for Ivory.”
ICE explained the detainer process in a statement, saying, “As part of its mission to identify and arrest removable noncitizens, ICE ERO lodges immigration detainers against noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody by state or local law enforcement. An immigration detainer is a request from ICE to state or local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE as early as possible before a removable noncitizen is released from their custody.”
Federal law requires local authorities to notify ICE 48 hours before an alleged criminal with a detainer request is released. ICE has repeatedly highlighted examples of local jurisdictions that refuse to do so, The Center Square has reported.
“Detainers are critical public safety,” ICE ERO Houston said in a statement. “Detainers increase the safety of all parties involved – ERO personnel, law enforcement officials, removable noncitizens and the public – by allowing an arrest to be made in a secure and controlled custodial setting as opposed to at-large within the community. Since detainers result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody, they also minimize the potential that an individual will reoffend. Additionally, detainers conserve scarce government resources by allowing ERO to take criminal noncitizens into custody directly rather than expending resources locating these individuals at-large.”
Under Democratic leadership, Harris County has embraced so-called sanctuary status for illegal foreign nationals.
ICE’s acting director under President Joe Biden has explained that some local jurisdictions “have reduced their cooperation with ICE, to include refusal to honor ICE detainer requests, even for noncitizens who have been convicted of serious felonies and pose an ongoing threat to public safety” due to their so-called “sanctuary city” policies. “However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals, who often victimize those same communities.”
Months before Ivory’s death, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was allegedly murdered by two Venezuelans illegally in the country, The Center Square reported.
Under the Biden administration more than 1 million illegal border crossers from Venezuela have been reported, The Center Square exclusively reported, and a violent Venezuelan gang expanded in major cities in Texas resulting in a multi-agency operation to target them.
