A Mexican national who illegally re-entered the United States five times says he had been warned by local police that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was looking for him — but he remained in California until federal agents arrested him this week.
Ernesto Alejandro Perez-Garcia was arrested by ICE agents Thursday morning in Redondo Beach, California, after agents encountered him on the city's esplanade. According to Fox News Digital, Perez-Garcia initially denied that he was the person agents were seeking before acknowledging his identity after officers showed him an earlier mugshot.
The arrest followed a lengthy history of encounters with law enforcement and immigration authorities. ICE says Perez-Garcia, a Mexican national, illegally entered the United States five times and made four additional attempts to cross the border.
Police warning allegedly came years earlier
Perez-Garcia told Fox News Digital that the Redondo Beach Police Department had previously informed him that ICE was looking for him.
He claimed that police had "told me a couple years ago" about the federal interest in him and that officers also told him there was a warrant for his arrest. Fox News Digital reported that it contacted the Redondo Beach Police Department for comment on his account.
The allegation highlights a central dispute surrounding so-called sanctuary policies: whether local law-enforcement agencies should cooperate with federal immigration authorities by holding or transferring individuals wanted by ICE.
ICE officials argue that when local agencies decline to honor immigration detainers, federal agents may later have to locate suspects themselves in the community.
ICE says detainers were declined
According to ICE, the Redondo Beach Police Department declined to honor detainer requests involving Perez-Garcia twice — once in 2020 and again in 2026.
ICE Los Angeles Field Office Director Tom Giles told Fox News Digital that such situations can force federal officers to conduct arrests in public rather than taking custody of an individual after a local arrest.
"When these detainers aren't honored," Giles said, "it sends our officers out into the community" to apprehend the person.
Giles argued that cooperation between local jurisdictions and federal immigration authorities would reduce the need for those operations and, in ICE's view, improve public safety.
A long record of arrests
Perez-Garcia's encounters with law enforcement date back to at least 2003, when he was arrested by the Torrance Police Department for driving without a license. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 days.
He was later convicted of driving with a suspended license and possessing controlled-substance paraphernalia.
In 2006, the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County convicted him of making a criminal threat with intent to terrorize. He received a 60-day jail sentence and three years of probation. ICE subsequently removed him to Mexico.
Despite that removal, immigration authorities say Perez-Garcia later returned to the United States.
Over the following years, he was arrested in connection with additional offenses and repeated attempts to cross the southern border, including incidents around Tecate, California. Since 2020, he has also been arrested five times for disorderly conduct, including four arrests by Redondo Beach police.
He says alcohol contributed to his arrest
After his ICE arrest, Perez-Garcia told Fox News Digital that he believed alcohol played a major role in the circumstances that ultimately brought him back into federal custody.
He said the death of a friend contributed to his struggle with alcoholism but acknowledged that he was responsible for his actions.
"I've got to be responsible for that," he said, according to Fox News Digital.
Perez-Garcia also acknowledged that he initially lied to ICE agents when they approached him. He said he was attempting to see whether he could avoid being identified, but changed his position after agents confronted him with his photograph.
'I already knew it was going to catch up to me'
Despite his arrest, Perez-Garcia told Fox News Digital that he believed the ICE action was fair.
He said he had expected that his immigration history would eventually catch up with him, although he did not know when that would happen.
"I already knew it was going to catch up to me; I just didn't know when," he said.
Perez-Garcia also explained that he had built much of his life in the United States and said his children live in the country. He expressed concern about returning to Mexico, saying he no longer has the life there that he once had.
The broader sanctuary-policy debate
The case has become another example in the ongoing national argument over the relationship between local police departments and federal immigration enforcement.
Supporters of sanctuary policies generally argue that local law enforcement should focus on state and municipal responsibilities rather than acting as an extension of federal immigration authorities. Critics counter that refusing to cooperate with ICE can allow individuals with immigration violations or criminal records to return to communities after local encounters with police.
Perez-Garcia's case is particularly notable because ICE says local authorities declined its detainer requests before federal agents eventually located him themselves.
The Redondo Beach Police Department's response to Perez-Garcia's claim about being warned by officers was not included in the Fox News report at the time of publication. Therefore, his account that local police personally warned him about ICE should be treated as an allegation rather than an independently confirmed fact.
The case also underscores the distinction between local and federal enforcement. A person can be released by local authorities while still being subject to federal immigration enforcement, meaning that release does not necessarily resolve a separate immigration matter.
For Perez-Garcia, that distinction ultimately ended with ICE locating him on the streets of Redondo Beach after years of arrests, removals and repeated illegal entries.
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