PORTLAND — Federal officers say they wanted to take an undocumented immigrant into custody before his March release from a Multnomah County jail on domestic violence allegations, but the sheriff’s office wouldn’t recognize the civil detainer.
The man is now accused of killing his wife and dumping her body in a ditch near a summer camp outside Sandy in Clackamas County.
The case is the latest to shine the spotlight on Oregon’s controversial sanctuary law just as voters in next week’s election will decide whether to repeal the law.
The matter goes to the heart of the debate over the 31-year-old law, a major thorn in the side of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has singled out Oregon and other states with similar laws as a haven for criminals who don’t belong in the United States.
Federal officials said they had placed a civil immigration hold in March on Martin Gallo-Gallardo after he was arrested and accused of two felony fourth-degree assault allegations stemming from alleged abuse of his wife.
Gallo-Gallardo, a Mexican citizen, entered the U.S. illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though the agency didn’t say when. ICE wanted the Multnomah County jail to alert the agency before his release so federal immigration officers could pick him up and hold Gallo-Gallardo subject to deportation proceedings.
County sheriff’s officials said they didn’t get the ICE request but wouldn’t have recognized it anyway because the administrative orders don’t meet the state law.
Gallo-Gallardo, 45, posted bail and prosecutors soon dismissed fourth-degree assault charges against him when his wife and a daughter wouldn’t cooperate in the case and a grand jury didn’t return an indictment, according to court records and investigators.
This week, Gallo-Gallardo was charged with murder for allegedly stabbing his wife, Coral Rodriguez Lorenzo, 38, and leaving her body in a ditch near a summer camp outside of Sandy.
An ICE spokeswoman suggested if Multnomah County had held Gallo-Gallardo as requested, he probably wouldn’t have returned to his family.
“ICE maintains that cooperation by local law enforcement is an indispensable component of promoting public safety,” said Tanya J. Roman, a spokeswoman for the ICE regional office that covers Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
“It’s unfortunate that law enforcement agencies like the Multnomah County jail refuse to work with ICE to promote public safety by holding criminals accountable and providing justice and closure for their victims,” she said.
Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese has said in the past that his deputies will hold a person for ICE only when they receive a federal criminal arrest warrant signed by a judge.
In this case, the Sheriff’s Office said it never received the civil detainer for Gallo-Gallardo. Even if it had, the jail still wouldn’t have kept him, said Sgt. Brandon White, sheriff’s spokesman.
“If federal immigration authorities had reason to keep Martin Gallo-Gallardo in custody they failed to take the steps necessary to make that happen, including entering information into any law enforcement criminal databases,” White said.
“We received no communication from ICE in regards to Martin Gallo-Gallardo,” White said. “Additionally, as our federal partners are aware, even if ICE had sent a civil detainer, Oregon jails cannot hold people due to the federal court case: Miranda Oliveras v. Clackamas County.”
In that 2014 case, a federal magistrate judge ruled Clackamas County was liable for damages after it held an inmate beyond her release date at the request of immigration agents who were still investigating her immigration status.
White added that the Sheriff’s Office “is committed to public safety and keeping people in custody under current state and federal law concurrent with the authority and direction from the court.”
Federal authorities continue to complain, arguing the sheriff’s stance misinterprets state and federal law.
“Sanctuary policies not only provide a refuge for illegal aliens, but they also shield criminal aliens who prey on people in their own and other communities,” Roman said.
Mat dos Santos, legal director of the ACLU of Oregon, has argued in the past that a defendant’s crimes are unrelated to immigration status. Tying them together appeals to the stereotype that immigrants are dangerous, when research shows that undocumented immigrants commit significantly less crimes than citizens born in the United States, he said.
Oregon’s 1987 sanctuary law prohibits state and local law enforcement agencies from using public resources to arrest people whose only violation of the law is being in the country illegally. Simply being in the country without authorization is a civil offense rather than a crime.
Oregon voters are now deciding whether to repeal the law. Opponents of the repeal have far outraised and outspent its supporters.
Gallo-Gallardo was arrested early on March 4 after a daughter called 911 at 4:24 a.m. and reported her father was yelling and hitting her mother, court records show. The girl said Gallo-Gallardo had come home drunk from a party. Police arrived and interviewed other children in the home, including a 15-year-old boy, who said he awoke to his father’s shouts and heard sounds of a physical fight. He told police his father had assaulted his mother in the past.
Police said they found Coral Rodriguez Lorenzo with a lump above her right eye and a lump on her forehead but she refused to answer questions about her pain level.
Gallo-Gallardo was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center in downtown Portland on two counts of felony fourth-degree assault. ICE officials said they placed a hold on him two days later on March 6. The sheriff’s office, as required, shared Gallo-Gallardo’s fingerprints with the FBI, which in turn provided the prints to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Homeland Security ran them through its immigration databases.
Gallo-Gallardo posted 10 percent of his $20,000 bail and was released on March 8.
On March 12, Multnomah County prosecutors dismissed the felony fourth-degree assault allegations, unable to proceed without the help of Gallo-Gallardo’s wife and daughter.
Court records indicate Gallo-Gallardo has lived with his wife in Portland for two years. His last address was on Southeast 160th Avenue. He was working full-time at the Pacific Seafood warehouse in Clackamas County. He had no prior convictions and no valid driver’s license, according to the records.
On Monday, an employee at Camp Namanu, located east of Sandy, reported finding a body in a ditch but authorities didn’t know who it was.
Rodriguez Lorenzo was reported missing Tuesday, and authorities determined the body found the day before was hers. Investigators learned she was last seen with her husband arguing at a party in Multnomah County, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Detectives went to question Gallo-Gallardo later Tuesday at his job. He agreed to go with them to the Sheriff’s Office in Clackamas County. There, he confessed to the killing, the affidavit said.
He said the two had been arguing and he accidentally elbowed his wife in the face, injuring her. He said she intended to call police, he then drove her to rural Clackamas County. He told detectives that his wife got out of the car to clean her face and he attacked her, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy found Rodriguez Lorenzo died from blunt-force head trauma and multiple stab wounds, the affidavit said.
After Gallo-Gallardo’s murder arrest, ICE placed a hold on him with the Clackamas County jail.
