Deported In ’98—Still Here, Now This

A Salvadoran illegal immigrant who an immigration judge ordered deported in 1998 is now accused of raping a 16-year-old girl on Long Island while walking free in New York’s broken sanctuary system.^[1]^[4]

Story Snapshot

A 59-year-old Salvadoran national with a 1998 deportation order is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl in Huntington, New York.^[1]^[4]
Suffolk County prosecutors say a grand jury indicted him on multiple first- and third-degree rape and sexual abuse charges and a judge set very high bail.^[1]
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have lodged a detainer and are urging New York not to release him after prosecution.^[1]^[4]
New York’s anti-cooperation rules and national attacks on immigration detainers show how left-wing policies keep hamstringing efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens.^[21]^[26]

How A Teen Girl’s Walk Home Turned Into A National Immigration Failure

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney says 59-year-old Aureliano Antonio Melendez Reyes, a Salvadoran national, approached a 16-year-old girl on June 6, 2026, as she walked home in Huntington, New York.^[1]^[4] Prosecutors say he asked for her phone number, then forced her into an alley and raped her before she escaped and called 911.^[4] A Suffolk County grand jury later indicted him on multiple counts of first-degree rape, third-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse, and child endangerment.^[1]

The district attorney’s office reports that Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis ordered Reyes held on $500,000 cash, $1 million bond, or $5 million partially secured bond while the case moves forward.^[1] That steep bail reflects how serious New York law treats first-degree rape and child victims, with a possible sentence of up to 25 years in prison on the top charge if he is convicted.^[1] At this stage Reyes is indicted, not convicted, but the charges and facts described are grave and specific.

A Deportation Order From 1998 — And A System That Did Not Follow Through

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Reyes entered the United States illegally at an unknown time and place and an immigration judge ordered him removed back in 1998.^[1]^[4] Nearly three decades later, he was still in New York, where he is now accused of sexually assaulting a child. Homeland Security officials told reporters that Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer asking Suffolk County to transfer him to federal custody when local prosecution ends.^[1]^[4]

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer is a request to a local jail to hold someone up to 48 extra hours so federal agents can pick them up, and to give notice before release.^[22] It is not a traditional arrest warrant signed by a judge, which is why many progressive officials and activist groups try to limit or block cooperation.^[21]^[26] In New York, state guidance says local agencies should only hold people on an immigration detainer if there is also a judicial warrant, even though federal law allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement to issue civil immigration documents on its own.^[22]^[26]

Sanctuary Rules, Lawsuits, And The War On ICE Detainers

New York City and state have already paid out tens of millions of dollars over past fights about immigration detainers, and courts there have said city jails cannot hold people past their release dates based only on a detainer request.^[20] A study of New York City jails found that noncitizens with Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers spent on average 73 extra days behind bars before discharge, and that detainers often act as a backdoor way to block bail.^[21] Those same statistics have fueled lawsuits and new rules that pressure sheriffs and jailers not to work closely with federal immigration agents.

Across the country, activist groups are now suing to shut down detainer use altogether. In Wisconsin, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a case arguing that holding someone for the extra 48 hours on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer counts as a new arrest that state law does not allow for civil immigration reasons.^[11]^[12]^[16] A federal judge recently sent that lawsuit back to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, where the group hopes to win a statewide ruling against sheriffs who cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.^[11]^[16]^[17] Legal papers in that case stress again and again that detainers are only “voluntary requests.”^[12]^[15]

What This Means For Public Safety, Families, And Immigration Policy

New York’s own guidance admits that local police are not required to honor immigration detainers, and says they should only hold someone for Immigration and Customs Enforcement when there is a judicial warrant or separate probable cause of a crime.^[26] That advice moves power away from federal immigration officers and toward state-level politicians and judges who may oppose enforcement. It also means someone with a past deportation order, like Reyes, can stay in communities for years if local agencies and courts do not coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on custody.^[1]^[4]^[26]

6.16.2026

News from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

June 16, 2026https://t.co/jr8oDTPntI

ICE New Orleans, in partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement, arrested 117 illegal aliens during a targeted enforcement operation in East Tennessee from May 24… https://t.co/PPxvT5yOQf

— Chance Free Williams (@White_Hat_117) June 20, 2026

For families and parents, this case raises hard questions. How did an illegal immigrant with a removal order going back to the 1990s remain inside the country long enough to be accused of raping a 16-year-old American girl?^[1]^[4] Why are activist lawsuits and sanctuary-style rules focused on stopping cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement instead of making sure dangerous offenders are removed quickly and permanently?^[11]^[20]^[26] As this prosecution and the immigration fight move forward, those questions will not go away.