Overview
- Aureliano Antonio Melendez Reyes, 59, was arrested in Huntington and charged with rape, sexual abuse, and endangering the welfare of a child after a 16-year-old girl says he attacked her on June 6 and she escaped to call 911.
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer asking local authorities to hold Reyes for transfer to federal custody, a request the Department of Homeland Security has publicly pressed New York officials to honor.
- DHS says Reyes entered the U.S. at an unknown time and was issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 1998, which is why federal authorities seek to take custody after the local prosecution.
- Acting Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Lauren Bis called Reyes a "sexual predator" and cited DHS data on thousands of releases of people with federal detainers in New York to urge state leaders to comply with ICE.
- Whether Reyes is turned over to ICE is unresolved because recent New York laws and local policies limit cooperation with federal detainers, and the case will proceed on separate criminal and immigration tracks depending on local decisions and court processes.