BALTIMORE — Baltimore based ICE agents recently arrested more than a dozen undocumented migrants with prior criminal convictions around the state.
One is Nankisoor Ramnath, a 70-year-old man from Trinidad and Tobago, who was convicted of second-degree murder and rape in Towson.
Court records show in July 2010 Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Vicki Ballou-Watts suspended Ramnath's entire 25 year sentence for the 2008 murder, with no supervised release, after he served 609 days behind bars.
In April of 2011 Ramnath would go onto commit rape, at which point another Baltimore County judge, John Turnbull II, handed down a 20-year sentence, but once again suspending all of it, except for 210 days of time served.
Ramnath was picked up by the feds on July 29, and already has a final order of removal from the U.S.
ICE listed Ramnath among their "Worst of the Worst" list, highlighting those who've been "convicted or accused of heinous crimes that put the American public at risk."
Another man appearing on that list is Mohammed Sesay, 32, of Sierra Leone, who was tracked down in Prince George's County on July 28 after having been convicted of second-degree rape and sex offense.
The rape occurred in March 2014. In July 2015 Sesay was sentenced to 20-years in prison, yet the judge required that he only serve 10.
A third individual making the list is Abraham Taddesse, of Ethiopia.
He too was convicted of second-degree rape in Prince George's County.
That incident took place in July 2019. In May 2022, Taddesse was given a 20-year sentence with all but 11 years knocked off.
Daniel Gutierrez-Leiva, a 49-year-old Guatemalan man, is another sex offender in Prince George's County convicted of second-degree rape, that ICE arrested over the last several days.
Salvadoran national Jose Benitez, 26, meanwhile, was captured in Baltimore on August 1.
Court records show Benitez was initially charged with first-degree rape back in September 2023.
Prosecutors wiped the most serious charge, instead trying him on one count each of fourth-degree sex offense and second-degree assault.
Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Alan Lazerow issued a 10-year sentence for both crimes, ordering Benitez to serve only three of those years.
At least half-a-dozen other arrests were made throughout the state from the tail end of July into August.
They include Rolando Arcides Garcia, 40 of El Salvador, who was convicted of a 2020 rape in Upper Marlboro, after illegally reentering the States through Texas. He received a 15-year jail term, for which 10 of it was suspended.
Two Honduran nationals, Sergio Martinez-Orellana and Ruben Antonio Molina-Ramirez, were arrested on back-to-back days last month.
Orellana was convicted in a Baltimore County court in April of sexually abusing an underage family member.
Judge Andrew Battista ordered Orellana to serve just 18 months of a 20 year jail sentence, despite having to register as a supervised life-time sex offender.
Ramirez was found guilty of negligent manslaughter related to a January 2019 incident in Washington County.
A judge there gave him 10-years jail time, suspending half the sentence.
Another man arrested with a prior sex offense conviction is Carlos Jose Romero-Tercero, 44 of El Salvador.
Court records show Tercero was initially accused of various felony sexual assaults involving an underage family member between January 2018 and July 2021. The orginial charges ranged from first-degree rape to filming child porn.
Charges were eventually downgraded to third-degree sex offense,for which Tercero pleaded guilty.
Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Theresa Chernosky agreed to grant Tercero probation before judgment.
All these arrests continue after ICE claims to have set a Maryland record for most undocumented sex offenders taken in last year.
Earlier this year, WMAR-2 News reported on a study ranking Maryland tenth in the nation for ignoring ICE detainers.
