A debate on how Massachusetts courts address ICE detainers against illegal immigrants has flared up after a local superior court released a noncitizen charged with forcibly raping a minor.

Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston disclosed last week that Middlesex Superior Court ignored its detainer against Maynor Francisco Hernandez-Rodas, an unlawfully present 38-year-old Guatemalan national.

Detainers, per the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, request that local or state law enforcement “maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released.”

That allows “ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law.”

ERO Boston had lodged a detainer against Hernandez in late June.

A Middlesex Superior Court judge arraigned Hernandez on Sept. 4 for aggravated rape of a child with force and rape of a child by force.

The judge “refused to honor (the) immigration detainer and released (the) noncitizen back into (the) community,” ERO Boston said in a release.

Officers with ERO Boston later arrested Hernandez on Sept. 20 in Lowell where he remains in ERO custody.

“Maynor Francisco Hernandez-Rodas stands accused of horrific crimes against a Massachusetts child,” acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde said in a statement. “He represents a significant danger to the children of our community that we will not tolerate. ERO Boston will continue to prioritize public safety by arresting and removing egregious noncitizen threats from our New England neighborhoods.”

ICE argues that detainers “minimize the potential that an individual will re-offend” since they “result in the direct transfer of a noncitizen from state or local custody to ERO custody.”

Hernandez, who has been convicted in the past on breach of peace offenses, is said to have unlawfully entered the country “on an unknown date, at an unknown location and without inspection, admission or parole by a U.S. immigration official.”

Lowell Police arrested Hernandez on June 14 this year on charges of aggravated rape of a child and rape of a child with force.

Under state law, Massachusetts courts don’t have the authority to “arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer, beyond the time that the individual would otherwise be entitled to be released from State custody,” according to a ruling by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

The SJC made that ruling in July 2017, when Gov. Maura Healey served as attorney general. It marked the first statewide decision in the nation on whether local law enforcement “detain someone at the request of federal immigration authorities.”

That has to change, says Massachusetts GOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale. She’s calling on the legislature to “take action, do the right thing for residents, and require courts to honor ICE detainers to keep our communities safe.”

“Instances of illegal immigrants being charged with heinous crimes, arrested, and released because ICE detainers are ignored under our state’s sanctuary philosophy have become far too common,” Carnevale said in a statement to the Herald.

The National Bureau of Economic Research released a report last February that studied the federal Secure Communities (SC) program, “a policy that increased information sharing between local police and federal immigration authorities.”

“This program was the largest expansion of interior immigration enforcement in U.S. history,” the report states, “and it resulted in large increases in immigrant detentions and deportations nationwide.”

At the same time, within the first two years of implementation in 2008, an estimated “1.3 million additional crimes against Hispanics” occurred, the report found.

Jack Lu, an adjunct criminology and justice studies professor at UMass Lowell and former 16-year Massachusetts Superior Court judge, highlighted that data while saying the Middlesex Superior Court handled the Hernandez case “flawlessly.”

“The judiciary must continue and increase its separation from law enforcement in the minds of immigrants,” Lu told the Herald, “because it is the right thing to do, and it will reduce future crime because future victims will feel safe enough to seek the protection of the courts from, for example, domestic abusers.”

Not all detainers are ignored. The state honored 21,633 from fiscal year 2006 through fiscal year 2024, with fiscal year 2023 recording the highest amount at 2,373, per the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Last month, Todd Lyons, ERO Boston’s field office director, praised the Worcester County Sherriff’s Office for honoring a detainer in August against a Haitian national charged with conspiracy to violate drug laws, drug distribution, drug manufacturing and unlawfully carrying a dangerous weapon.

“As Sheriff, I took an oath of office to protect the people of Worcester County,” Sheriff Lewis Evangelidis said in a statement. “Part of that responsibility is working with our partners in law enforcement, including ICE.”

Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for watchdog group Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said politicians and government officials are “blinded by their own political ideology.”

“The safety of the public, and the voice of the victims, should be paramount over the political ideology of our leaders,” he said in a statement to the Herald. “There is absolutely no justification for protecting these types of violent criminals and the politicians and government officials that don’t understand this should not serve in their roles any longer.”

The Department of Homeland Security flag flies outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)