1 of 2 who escaped from Colorado immigration detention is found nearby

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One of two men who escaped from a Colorado immigration detention center was arrested Friday after being found by a sheriff’s deputy about 12 miles away.

An Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office deputy approached Joel Gonzalez-Gonzalez, 32, around 4:30 a.m. because he seemed suspicious, sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Adam Sherman said. When it was determined he was one of the two men who escaped Tuesday night from the detention center in Aurora, Colorado, he was taken into temporary custody until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrived, Sherman said.

The other person who escaped on Tuesday night remained at large. They both apparently walked out of doors that opened during a power outage at the detention center in the Denver suburb, which is operated by The GEO Group under a contract with ICE.

ICE officials said they immediately asked local authorities for help finding the men. But Aurora police chief Todd Chamberlain said that they were not notified until over four hours after the men were gone. By that time, Chamberlain said it was too late for police to help.

Gonzalez-Gonzalez, who is from Mexico, had been held in the jail in Adams County from Feb. 9 through Feb. 12 in connection with local criminal charges, including second-degree motor vehicle theft, Sherman said. Court documents in the criminal case were not immediately available. He is being represented in that case by a lawyer from the public defender’s office, which does not comment on its cases to the media.

ICE said it arrested Gonzalez-Gonzalez on Feb. 12, and he was taken to its detention center pending immigration proceedings. Gonzalez-Gonzalez has been in the United States since 2013 and violated the conditions of his admission, it said.

It is not known whether Gonzalez-Gonzalez may have a lawyer representing him in his immigration case.