A migrant from El Salvador who is charged with molesting children as young as 6 was deported twice — then arrested and released back into the community last year despite being in the country illegally, according to authorities.
Ervin Jeovany Alfaro-Lopez, 33, is accused of groping at least four little girls as they prayed at a church outside Washington, DC, while he worked there as a teacher.
He faces 25 counts of sexual misconduct charges for abuse allegations date as far back as 2014.
Following his latest arrest March 11, Alfaro-Lopez is being held without bond in Montgomery County Detention Center.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to The Post Monday that Alfaro-Lopez was removed from the US in 2015 and again in 2020.
According to ICE, Alfaro-Lopez’s first brush with border agents was on March 23, 2015, when US Border Patrol (USBP) arrested him near Lake Charles, La. for having unlawfully entered the US.
He was released in April 2015 on $7,500 bond and ordered to report to the ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Baltimore field office (ERO).
A Baltimore immigration judge ordered Alfaro-Lopez be removed from the country in September 2018, but he was arrested again in January 2019 and was ordered to leave the country.
He crossed out of the US in April 2019, ERO Baltimore spokesperson James Covington told The Post.
However, he later returned and was apprehended again less than a year later in March 2020 in Rio Grande Valley, Texas after apparently sneaking across the border once more.
Border Patrol agents processed him for expedited removal and he was sent back to El Salvador later that month.
However, after again re-entering the US illegally at some point — he was arrested by Montgomery County Police Aug. 9, 2023 and charged with second-degree rape and two counts of a sex offense in the third degree, ICE told The Post.
But he was back on the streets just two days later after the Montgomery County Detention Center refused to honor an immigration detainer issued by ICE, the agency spokesperson told The Post.
“This is a perfect example of the level of criminality … when folks are recycled back into communities and jurisdictions are not honoring our detainers, very tragic story here,” ERO Baltimore Field Office Director Darius Reeves said in a statement to FOX 5 DC.
“Counties cannot continuously recycle gang members with guns, child molesters, rapists, accessory to murders, you cannot continuously allow that to happen,” he added.
“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.”
A message seeking comment sent to Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Ben Stevenson was not returned.
A circuit court judge in Montgomery County in Rockville, Maryland amended the charges against Alfaro-Lopez last September to include six counts of sex offense in the third degree, one count of sex abuse of a minor, and five counts of sex offense in the second degree
Finally, Montgomery County Police arrested Alfaro-Lopez on March 11 and charged him with five additional counts of sexual abuse of a minor and eight counts of sex offence in the third degree.
The 13 new charges brought in March stem from incidents that allegedly took place between March 2016 and December 2018.
Court documents viewed by FOX 5 DC show the alleged offenses took place at the Elim Misión Cristiana church in Derwood, Maryland — about 20 miles north of Washington, DC — where Alfaro-Lopez was reportedly working as an instructor and educational coordinator.
According to the charging documents, during that time period Alfaro-Lopez allegedly abused at least four girls between the ages of six and 12, including the daughter of the church pastor.
The pastor learned of the abuse from his daughter, a confession made by Alfaro-Lopez and from the parents of other alleged victims.
The outlet states victims reported the alleged abuse would usually happen at times when the young girls had their eyes closed in prayer, at which point Alfaro-Lopez would allegedly grope their bodies, both over and underneath their clothing.
ERO Baltimore tells The Post it plans to seek to take custody of Alfaro-Lopez after he serves his sentence locally, assuming he’s convicted of the charges.
