One of the two detainees still missing after escaping from a New Jersey federal immigration detention center has been arrested, the FBI said Tuesday.
Franklin Norberto Bautista-Reyes, from Honduras, has been taken into custody, FBI spokesperson Amy Thoreson said in an email. Andres Felipe Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, is still missing from Thursday night’s escape, the bureau said.
Bautista-Reyes and Pineda-Mogollon and two other men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through a wall and escaping from a parking lot, according to Sen. Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, and Homeland Security officials.
All four men were in the country illegally and had been charged by local police in New Jersey and New York City, federal officials said.
Bautista-Reyes was charged in May with aggravated assault, attempt to cause bodily injury, terroristic threats and a weapon crime. Pineda-Mogollon, from Colombia, was charged with minor larceny and burglary crimes.
The details surrounding Bautista-Reyes’ capture were not immediately clear. Messages seeking information were sent to the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that they were grateful to law enforcement for apprehending the men.
The FBI on Monday had increased the reward for information leading to their arrest to $25,000 from $10,000.
Joel Enrique Sandoval-Lopez, one of the other fugitives, was taken into custody in Passaic, New Jersey, on Friday, the day after the escape in nearby Newark. Then, on Sunday, Joan Sebastian Castaneda-Lozada surrendered to federal authorities in Milleville, New Jersey. Sandoval-Lopez, from Honduras, was charged with unlawful possession of a handgun in October and aggravated assault in February, officials said. Castaneda-Lozada, from Colombia, was charged with burglary, theft and conspiracy, authorities said.
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It’s unclear who may be representing the men. The New Jersey Office of the Public Defender declined to comment on the development.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat who has been critical of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, cited reports of a possible uprising and escape after disorder broke out at the facility Thursday night and protesters outside the center locked arms and pushed against barricades as vehicles passed through gates. Much is still unclear about what unfolded there, but later on Tuesday the FBI released details in a statement charging the four men with escape.
The men broke through an aluminum wall on the second story of the facility and dropped mattresses through an opening, giving them a place to jump, the FBI said. They used bedsheets to cover barbed wire to get over the fence, according to the bureau.
GEO Group, the company that owns and operates the detention facility for the federal government, said in a statement last week that there was “no widespread unrest” at the facility.
Delaney Hall has been the site of clashes this year between Democratic officials who say the facility needs more oversight and the Trump administration and those who run the facility.
Baraka was arrested May 9, handcuffed and charged with trespassing. The charge was later dropped. But US Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver was later charged with assaulting federal officers stemming from a skirmish that happened outside the facility. She has denied the charges.
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