CNN
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One of two US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees who escaped during a power outage at a Colorado detention facility earlier this week was captured Friday, authorities said.
Joel Gonzalez-Gonzalez was taken into custody by Adams County Sheriff’s personnel early Friday morning, ICE’s Denver office said in a statement, noting Gonzalez-Gonzalez will remain in ICE custody pending “criminal & immigration proceedings.”
The arrest was made about 12 miles from the ICE detention facility in the Denver suburb of Aurora, where Gonzalez-Gonzalez and another detainee escaped Tuesday night. The two are believed to have walked out of a set of doors that opened during a power outage. The other person who escaped remains at large.
Gonzalez-Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, was detained at the ICE detention facility after first being held in a jail in Adams County last month on local criminal charges, including second-degree motor vehicle theft, Adams County Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Adam Sherman told the Associated Press.
CNN reached out to the sheriff’s office for further details.
Gonzalez-Gonzalez called authorities to turn himself in and agreed to share information on his fellow escapee in exchange for having his case dismissed, his public defender said in court Friday, according to CNN affiliate KUSA.
In its statement announcing the arrest, ICE thanked the Adams County Sheriff’s Office “for the partnership with common goal of keeping the community safe!” Earlier this week, federal and local authorities offered different versions of the response to the escape.
In a statement sent to the AP Thursday about the escape, ICE said law enforcement authorities were notified immediately but declined to help in the search.
Federal officials and Republican lawmakers have criticized what are often known as sanctuary policies in places including Denver that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Last month the Trump administration sued the city of Chicago and the broader state of Illinois over their immigration enforcement policies.
The Aurora Police Department disputed ICE’s claims about the timeline of this week’s escape, saying they weren’t notified until roughly two hours after the men were discovered missing, and over four hours after they were believed to have fled the ICE facility.
Aurora police said they have an agreement with the private company that runs the ICE detention center to help with escapees, but only if they are notified within 15 minutes of an escape.
