Rhode Island releases illegal immigrant accused of raping mentally disabled person

Although Democratic lawmakers have failed to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from entering schools, hospitals and courthouses without a warrant, Rhode Island is still a de facto sanctuary state, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

At a minimum, the Ocean State – whose capital is a sanctuary city – will not detain a person based solely on an ICE warrant, Democratic Governor Dan McKee confirmed in a Feb. 22 statement.

On February 28, Providence police arrested an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who was wanted on charges of child abuse, rape and first-degree domestic violence. Although ICE obtained an arrest warrant for the accused child rapist, the Sixth District Court of Rhode Island reportedly released him before Boston Department of Corrections and Deportation officials could take him into custody.

Fortunately, immigration authorities were able to catch him on April 10 before he could harm more people in the state.

“This individual, who was here unlawfully, was arrested locally for first-degree child abuse and released back into the community despite being held on immigration detention,” said Todd M. Lyons, ERO’s Boston field office director. “We believe it is in the community’s best interest for jurisdictions to recognize our immigration arrest warrants so that ICE can directly take into custody individuals like this who pose a threat to local residents.”

Days later, it seemed as if Rhode Island had taken Lyons’ suggestion to heart.

A child molester from Guatemala who was in the U.S. illegally was arrested in 2018 and convicted of first-degree child molestation/sexual assault in 2022. Although he received a 25-year prison sentence, his sentence was reduced to six years. Before his release, the Rhode Island Department of Corrections notified ICE, which allowed ERO Boston to prevent him from “returning to our Rhode Island neighborhoods to re-offend.”

The days of such cooperation were obviously short-lived.

“That’s not the kind of person we want walking the streets of our New England neighborhoods.”

Rigberto Hoyos-Alban, a 33-year-old Colombian national who stole across the southern border near the Rio Grande Valley in Texas in November 2023, was arrested by Central Falls police in Rhode Island on March 13 and charged with two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree rape and aggravated assault on a mentally disabled person, according to ICE.

Once again, deportation officers from ERO Boston’s Providence Field Office filed an immigration detention petition—this time on March 14 at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute—and once again the ICE detention petition was denied.

The prison released Hoyos-Alban, allowing the alleged rapist to roam freely for over two months.

ICE officials were finally able to catch up with the Colombian in Cranston on May 22.

“Rigberto Hoyos-Alban was charged with four crimes (so) for sexual assault and a charge of assault (so) a person with a severe intellectual disability,” Lyons said in a statement. “That is not the type of person we want walking the streets of our New England neighborhoods.”

Lyons added that ERO Boston will “continue to put the safety of our people first by arresting and removing violent aliens from our communities.”

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