This is Manuel Flores. He is an illegal alien fugitive from the law. He is accused of raping and sodomizing his girlfriend’s nine-year-old daughter.

Nine-year-old daughter.

Manuel Flores is free, reportedly headed back to Mexico, because federal immigration officials screwed up, according to a local Denver report. I linked to this story earlier today, but it deserves greater exposure. And it deserves the attention of DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who has been too busy demonizing immigration enforcement proponents to make sure his behemoth bureaucracy is doing its damned job:

Law enforcement agencies say they followed policies and procedures, but an illegal alien, accused of sexually assaulting a nine year-old Denver girl, was still able to post a bond and flee the country.

The man, who called himself Manuel Flores, was arrested February 15 and accused of raping and sodomizing his girlfriend’s daughter. According to police documents, he was not able to provide a Social Security number or driver’s license. When he was booked into the Denver Jail, he told Officers he was born in Moralos, Mexico.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman says they alerted federal immigration officials that Flores might be an illegal alien, but ICE apparently did not put an immigration hold on him.

A private bounty hunter tracked Flores down. But no one’s lifting a finger to bring him back here to face charges:

Bounty hunter James Ness discovered Flores real name and tracked him to his hometown in Mexico. Ness says he provided the information to prosecutors, but there is no move to bring the suspect back to the United States. Ness says he thinks this case fell through the cracks, but he adds, “But the crack is huge. A lot of people fall into that crack.”

ICE and the Judge did not respond to Fox31 calls. The Denver Sheriff’s Department says they report roughly 20 suspected illegal aliens under arrest to ICE each day. But the federal agency typically puts holds on only two or three.

Yet another case of the federal immigration bureaucracy following “standard procedure,” eh, Secretary Chertoff?

Perhaps the DHS Secretary should spend less time on TV trashing immigration enforcement proponents–and a little more time investigating how his agency endangers innocent lives.

Who screwed up? How did this happen? What is Chertoff going to do to bring Flores back and ensure that justice is done?

Ask him:

DHS Citizen Line
Operator Number: 202-282-8000
Comment Line: 202-282-8495

Hello? Is anybody there?

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