Maryland church teacher who assaulted girls was an illegal twice deported: report
A church teacher in Maryland who was arrested for allegedly assaulting four girls entered the United States illegally after having been deported twice, according to an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Ervin Jeovany Alfaro Lopez, 33, of Germantown, was arrested on Monday after an investigation by the Montgomery County Department of Police, Special Victims Investigations Division.
A citizen of El Salvador, Alfaro Lopez had been arrested and deported in 2018 and then granted voluntary departure in 2019, following two instances of him unlawfully entering the country, reported the Washington, D.C.-based Fox 5.
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In 2020, Alfaro Lopez was deported a second time when he was caught by border patrol agents in Texas, only to return to the United States under unknown circumstances.
Alfaro Lopez was arrested by Montgomery County police last August and charged with rape second-degree and two counts of sex offense third-degree. But when an Immigration Detainer was issued against him, the Montgomery County Detention Center refused to honor the order and he was released.
Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore Field Office Director Darius Reeves said in a statement that this was “a perfect example of the level of criminality and level of destruction when folks are recycled back into communities and jurisdictions are not honoring our detainers.”
“Counties cannot continuously recycle gang members with guns, child molesters, rapists, accessory to murders, you cannot continuously allow that to happen,” Reeves told Fox.
“Please stop recycling these egregious offenders back into your communities and to not honor an ice detainer in my opinion is an obstruction of federal law enforcement efforts.”
According to Montgomery County Police, SVID detectives began investigating Alfaro Lopez in May of last year, when an alleged victim came forward reported being sexually abused by him.
During their investigation, detectives discovered three more victims who were allegedly abused by Alfaro Lopez, with the crimes said to have taken place between 2016 and 2018.
“The victims were between the ages of 6 and 12-years-old at the time of the offenses, and Alfaro Lopez was 25- to 27-years-old at the time of the offenses,” reported Montgomery County authorities. “Alfaro Lopez is being held without bond at the Montgomery County Central Processing Unit.”
