It’s hard to imagine a more gut-wrenching story: Hallie Helgeson, 18, and Brady Heiling, 19 — high school sweethearts who had just gone to prom — are now dead because an illegal alien who should never have been in the country allegedly drove drunk the wrong way on a highway and smashed into their car.
The suspect, 30-year-old Noelia A. Martinez of Honduras, wasn’t just here illegally. According to the Department of Homeland Security, she had a criminal record and was able to avoid deportation thanks in part to Dane County, Wisconsin’s sanctuary policies.
That’s right: the county where this tragedy happened is one of the jurisdictions that refuses to honor ICE detainers — the mechanism that allows federal agents to take custody of criminal illegal aliens before they’re released back onto the streets.
“Hallie Helgeson and Brady Heiling had their whole lives ahead of them — and they would still be alive today if it weren’t for Noelia Saray Martinez-Avila,” DHS’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this sanctuary jurisdiction has a history of not honoring ICE arrest detainers often leading to the release of murderers and other heinous criminals.”
And yet, Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett is doubling down. Barrett told local media earlier this year — and reiterated this week — that his jail won’t honor ICE detainers unless the agency gets an arrest warrant signed by a judge. But here’s the thing: under federal law, ICE doesn’t need a criminal warrant.
The Immigration and Nationality Act allows ICE to issue administrative warrants signed by federal officials. Barrett knows this. Every sanctuary sheriff knows this.
They use the “we need a judge’s warrant” line because they know ICE doesn’t need — and usually doesn’t get — them. It’s a legal fig leaf for a political policy.
So, while officials like Barrett play jurisdictional games, real people pay the price. Hallie and Brady’s families are burying their children because a sanctuary policy made it easier for a criminal illegal alien to remain in the U.S.
Martinez is still in custody, facing two counts of vehicular homicide. Her next court hearing is in September. But let’s be clear: this wasn’t just a tragic accident.
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Author: Mark Stevens
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