Two men were arrested in Livingston County last week on charges of attempting to meet a minor for sexual purposes. The incident took place in Genoa Township and involved the out-of-state group Bikers Against Predators, which works to expose online predators using decoys. The nonprofit alerted police about the suspicious activity, leading to the arrest of the two suspects, according to Detroit News.
The Livingston County Sheriff's office responded to reports from Bikers Against Predators, who had gathered explicit text messages shared with a member posing as a 13-year-old, as reported by Lansing State Journal. After reviewing the texts, deputies arrested the men on suspicion of being in the country illegally, following the sheriff's policy to monitor interactions with undocumented immigrants and report them to officials.
The sheriff's office identified two men, whose names have not been released, as possibly undocumented. They were handed over to ICE agents. Their conversations with a fake profile, pretending to be a minor, were reviewed with the help of a translator at the sheriff's office, as mentioned by Mlive.
State Rep. Jason Woolford issued a statement commending the sheriff’s office for its efforts, while also noting that it "but also emphasizes the alarming consequences of the Biden administration’s outrageous and unacceptable open-border policies," as obtained by Mlive. The ACLU had previously opposed Livingston County’s directive to monitor and report interactions with undocumented immigrants. Sheriff Murphy, in an interview with the Livingston Daily, clarified that the crimes being investigated are not associated with any particular group, but the arrests were fast-tracked due to the suspects' immigration status.
