ICE files detainer against Columbia man charged with strangling his girlfriend

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials lodged a detainer Monday for a Honduran man accused of strangling his girlfriend to death in Howard County, requesting that Texas authorities notify the agency before releasing him.

Darwin Gerardo Carcamo-Santiago, 24, was arrested Monday in Texas on charges of first- and second-degree murder in the death of Esmeralda Perez-Mendez, 35, of Takoma Park.

An acquaintance found Perez-Mendez dead Sunday afternoon in Carcamo-Santiago’s bedroom in an apartment in the 9000 block of Watchlight Court in Columbia’s Long Reach village before calling police. Detectives believe she may have been killed Saturday night or early Sunday.

Carcamo-Santiago, who ICE says entered the United States illegally, is being held at the McLennan County jail in Texas, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

The case could renew the federal government’s scrutiny of Howard County at a time when President Donald Trump is pushing an aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.

Howard County stands out in Maryland for its sanctuary law that prohibits county employees from assisting with immigration enforcement. Voters there passed a referendum upholding the county’s Liberty Act in 2022.

Howard’s elected leaders faced pressure from ICE officials last year to hold people in the county jail who are suspected of entering the country illegally.

In its statement, DHS said that since sanctuary municipalities refuse to work with ICE, criminals who are in the country illegally are released from jails into communities to commit more crimes.

Howard County is waiting for a federal judge’s ruling in its high-profile legal battle with a private contractor over the future of an ICE facility in Elkridge that’s intended to replace the agency’s Baltimore field office. The Department of Justice has weighed in on the developer’s behalf, supporting the plans.

Another Maryland homicide case involving a man accused of entering the country illegally became a flash point in the 2024 election. Trump invited the family of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was found dead in 2023 after going for a jog on the Ma & Pa Trail in Bel Air, to speak at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

A Harford County judge later sentenced Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez, a citizen of El Salvador who illegally entered the U.S. in 2023, to multiple sentences for Morin’s death, including life in prison without the possibility of parole, a consecutive life sentence and an additional 40 years.