U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials arrested a Jamaican national with three felony convictions on the street after he was released from a Connecticut prison Dec. 17.
According to a statement from ICE, Sanjay Sivan Walsh was released from Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield following a 21-month sentence, after which the prison “declined to honor an ICE detainer against him and released him into the public.”
The Connecticut judicial website shows Walsh was sentenced to 10 years in jail, suspended after 21 months, with 10 years probation after being convicted of second-degree sexual assault, a Class C felony.
Two cases, with offense dates of June 29, 2018 and July 31, 2019 are listed. At the same time Walsh was convicted of conspiracy to commit tampering with physical evidence, with an offense date of Jan. 9, 2022. According to a Journal Inquirer article, Walsh “was accused of lying to police about his knowledge of a case in which a juvenile may have been falsely blamed for the fatal shooting of a 17 year old during an East Hartford marijuana deal.” According to the article, the 17-year-old victim may have reached into a car in an attempt to steal marijuana and was shot by someone in the car. While Walsh was not present for the shooting, he reportedly admitted to being called by the alleged shooter to dispose of a bag of trash that contained evidence.
Walsh remains in custody of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston pending immigrations proceedings.
“Mr. Walsh was convicted of committing unspeakable crimes against two children, and he was sentenced to prison for it,” said ERO Boston acting Field Office Director Patricia H. Hyde. “ERO Boston lodged an immigration detainer against him so our officers could safely arrest him upon his release, but the Connecticut Department of Corrections officials refused to honor the detainer. Our officers had to arrest Mr. Walsh in the community after his release from prison, even though he was convicted of terrible crimes against children and is removable from the U.S. based on his convictions.”
Republicans responded to the ICE statement with a repeated promise to try to overturn the Connecticut law preventing law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities.
“Six years ago, Connecticut Democrats passed a law severely restricting local and state law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents. That terrible policy continues to produce situations like this,” Sens. Rob Sampson, Eric Berthel and Stephen Harding said statement.
“Connecticut Republicans will push to repeal that short-sighted 2019 law which made Connecticut less safe. We invite Democrats to review this case and join us in fixing what they broke.”
