Is Philadelphia so hell bent on protecting illegal aliens that it let one go who was arrested for child rape?

In a news release, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency says Philadelphia did not honor a “hold” placed on Winston Enrique Perez Pilarte, aka Josue Duran-Cortes, after he was arrested for “attempted rape, unlawful sexual contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint, endangering the welfare of a child, corruption of minors, indecent assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person” in July 2015.

According to ICE, Perez Pilarte already has several prior convictions, including “manufacturing/distributing a controlled dangerous substance, resisting arrest/eluding an officer, and theft by unlawful taking.”

It’s not known why he is still in the country.

“After confirming his identity using biometric data, an ICE detainer was lodged against Perez Pilarte while he was detained at the Philadelphia Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility in July 2015.  On Nov. 25, 2015, Perez Pilarte was released from local custody without being turned over on the ICE detainer,” according to the agency.

“Our deportation officers will use every available resource at our disposal to find and arrest these alleged predators,” said Tom Decker, ERO Philadelphia field office director.

“However, one of our best resources to keep these dangerous criminals off of our streets and from committing more crimes is for the Mayor to honor our detainers and requests for notification,” he said, referring to Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.

“ICE is hopeful that the Mayor will work with us to keep our community safe.”

A Kenney spokesperson defended the release of Perez Pilarte, claiming turning him over could hurt “community cooperation.”

“Mayor Jim Kenney spokeswoman Lauren Hitt said the ICE statement makes it clear Immigration can arrest its targets without the city’s help, and that routinely handing people over to Immigration authorities would jeopardize community cooperation and make it harder to solve crimes,” News Works reports.