Local authorities in Multnomah County released convicted criminal Sergio Jose Martinez (pictured at right) in late July, ignoring a detainer issued against him by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

After releasing him from jail, authorities now allege Martinez, 31, broke into a home where he raped a 65-year-old woman. He then stole her car and later sexually assaulted a second woman in a parking garage that same day.

ICE officials stated after the re-arrest that Martinez had been deported more than 13 times since 2008, but the Multnomah County sheriff said ICE needed a criminal warrant signed by a judge – not just a civil detainer – to take Martinez into custody.

Multnomah County, meanwhile, officially became a “sanctuary” for illegal aliens last December, shielding them from federal immigration laws.

Multnomah is also the same county where a judge allowed an illegal alien, who was facing a DUI charge, to escape from her courtroom in January while ICE officials were coming to arrest him for deportation.  That judge, Monica Herranz, is part of the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association, The Daily Wire reported.

Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform says it’s past time to hold “sanctuary” cities accountable.

“Not just withholding certain federal funds, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions has now laid out his plan for doing,” Mehlman says. “But actually holding the people who make these policies accountable, allowing the victims of criminal aliens, who were released by sanctuary policies, to sue these local governments for the damage that was done to them.”

The family of Kate Steinle attempted to sue the City of San Francisco and its county sheriff after her 2015 slaying by an illegal immigrant.

A judge dismissed that wrongful death lawsuit in January, claiming the sheriff did not violate the law by refusing to let immigration officials know that Juan Lopez-Sanchez was being released. A repeat felon, he shot and killed the 32-year-old months after his release from jail.

Multnomah County sheriff Mike Reese called the allegations of rape, kidnapping, burglary, and robbery in his county a “terrible incident” that is “concerning for everyone.”

Yet the sheriff has vowed to refuse to cooperate with ICE and even investigated a sheriff’s deputy who cooperated with ICE officials in January by delivering an illegal alien to the county courthouse.

This latest “sanctuary city” case, says Mehlman, should compel Republicans in the U.S. Senate to “get off their rear ends” and approve a House bill that would imprison illegal aliens if they return after being deported