DHS Says He Was Released From ICE Custody in 2024. This Week, Prosecutors Say He Kidnapped a 6-Year-Old Girl.
Before dawn on Sept. 5, 2026, a 6-year-old girl was reported missing from her home in Washington Borough, Warren County, New Jersey. An hour later, police found her walking home alone. Within roughly 24 hours, prosecutors say, they had their suspect: Lester Noe Perez-Amador, 27, a Guatemalan national living illegally in the United States.
He is now charged with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree home-invasion burglary, two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. He is presumed innocent; none of the charges has been tested at trial.
What makes this case a policy story, not only a crime story, is what the Department of Homeland Security says happened roughly two and a half years before Sept. 5: Perez-Amador was arrested on a DUI charge in March 2024, taken into ICE custody to face deportation — and, per DHS, released back into the community by the Biden administration.
- 6years oldage of the alleged victim, found roughly an hour after being reported missing — Warren County Prosecutor's Office
- ~24 hrsto arresttime from the report to Perez-Amador's arrest — Washington Township Police
- 2024prior ICE custodyDHS says he was released after a DUI arrest — Fox News Digital; unconfirmed by a second outlet
- 0cash bailNew Jersey abolished cash bail in 2017 — this is a pretrial-detention motion, not a bond
- 25–lifemax exposureif convicted on the aggravated sexual assault counts — WFMZ, N.J. sentencing statute
- Oct. 19next court date2026 — Fox News Digital; a separate detention hearing was expected the week of Sept. 14
Washington Township Police received the missing-child report around 2:51 a.m. on Sept. 5. Roughly an hour later, the girl — known to the suspect, according to the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office — was located walking on her own back toward home and taken to a hospital for treatment. Multiple local outlets, including WFMZ, NJ1015, Patch, and WRNJ Radio, corroborate the same basic sequence: a home-invasion abduction, a short window before the child was found, and an arrest within about a day.
Warren County Prosecutor Jessica L. Cardone announced the initial home-invasion and kidnapping charges on Sept. 7, then added the aggravated-sexual-assault and child-endangerment counts on Sept. 8 once the investigation developed further. Washington Township Police Chief Christopher Jones credited a multi-agency response for the speed of the arrest.
“Protecting our children is a responsibility we take very seriously, and our commitment does not end with an arrest.”
Jessica L. Cardone · Warren County Prosecutor
“Our thoughts go out to the victim, and we wish the best to them and their family. The collaboration between multiple agencies brought this investigation to a successful conclusion, with the suspect being placed in custody within a short time period.”
Christopher Jones · Chief, Washington Township Police Department
Perez-Amador faces first-degree home-invasion burglary, first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree aggravated sexual assault, and third-degree child endangerment. New Jersey abolished cash bail under its 2017 Criminal Justice Reform Act, so there is no bond figure attached to this case — instead, prosecutors filed a motion for pretrial detention, arguing he should be held without any possibility of release while the case proceeds. He is being held at the Warren County Correctional Center in Belvidere. Reporting is mixed on the exact next hearing date: WFMZ describes a detention hearing expected the week of Sept. 14; Fox News Digital reports his next formal court appearance as Oct. 19. Both may be accurate — a detention hearing and a formal arraignment are different proceedings.
First-degree aggravated sexual assault in New Jersey carries a sentencing range of 25 years to life. Multiple first-degree counts, if all result in conviction, could push total exposure toward the higher end of that range. No plea has been entered. No trial date has been set.
The policy dimension of this case rests on a single-source claim, and it should be read as exactly that. According to a DHS statement given to Fox News Digital, Perez-Amador was arrested in March 2024 on a DUI charge, taken into ICE custody to face removal proceedings, and then released back into the community under the Biden administration. DHS did not specify the jurisdiction of that DUI arrest, the legal mechanism of his release — a bond hearing, an administrative-closure decision, a detention-capacity call — or whether any New Jersey state or local noncooperation with an ICE detainer played a role. No independent ICE.gov release, court record, or second news outlet corroborating the specific 2024 release has been located as of publication.
DHS has separately lodged an immigration detainer against Perez-Amador and is urging Washington Township to transfer him into ICE custody once the state case concludes. Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), sworn in this past January, has not commented publicly on this case; New Jersey’s 2018 Immigrant Trust Directive, which restricts state and local cooperation with federal detainer requests, predates her administration and was not cited by DHS as a factor here. We are not linking her office to a decision the record does not show her office made.
Strip away the immigration-status detail and this is still a case about a 6-year-old girl taken from her own home. Strip away the crime and the immigration-status detail is still a real, if partially unverified, claim from a federal agency that a man facing deportation for a DUI arrest was back on the street in New Jersey roughly two and a half years before he was charged with kidnapping a child. Both facts belong in the same story, and neither should be allowed to obscure the other.
What is documented, not disputed: a fast local response, a suspect in custody within about a day, and a set of first-degree charges that will now move through the New Jersey court system in the ordinary sequence — a detention hearing, a formal arraignment, and eventually a trial or a plea. What is not yet documented: the specific legal mechanism of the 2024 release DHS describes. We will update this page if a primary document, an ICE case record, or a second independent outlet closes that gap.
