The historic crisis at the southern border saw millions of illegal immigrants arrive there, with a great many eventually released into the United States as officials struggled to deal with the numbers they were facing.
Illegal immigration has remained a top issue for voters ever since, and that has been highlighted by a number of shocking, high-profile crimes committed by those in the country without authorization.
These are some of the most shocking crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants at the height of the border crisis – some of whom entered during the current crisis and some who entered years before, but allegedly committed crimes recently.
IMMIGRANT MURDER CONVICTIONS ‘TENS OF THOUSANDS’ HIGHER THAN ICE’S BOMBSHELL FIGURES: DATA EXPERT
2022
In March, Haitian illegal immigrant Jean Robert Macean was arrested for the stabbing death of a married couple in Florida. They were riding their bikes for a Bike Week event when they were killed. He was later deemed incompetent to stand trial.
“This is probably one of the most vicious and gruesome incidents that I’ve witnessed in my 20 years,” Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said at the time. “We can’t rule out that this may be totally random, but if it is totally random, the person responsible has to be deranged.”
In July, Kayla Hamilton, who was autistic, was raped and killed in her mobile home. Police eventually arrested an El Salvadoran 17-year-old who authorities said is linked to the MS-13 street gang and who was released into the U.S. into the custody of his aunt after being encountered at the border. An interim staff Judiciary Committee report released in 2023 faulted the Biden administration for a failure to vet the suspect, calling it a “tragic example of the failure to enforce U.S. immigration law.”
“For me, this is not a political issue. This is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States,” Tammy Nobles, Kayla’s mother told lawmakers. “This could have been anyone’s daughter. Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong, and she didn’t deserve to be murdered. I don’t want any other parents to live the nightmare I am living.”
The same month, Gerson Fuentes – a Guatemalan illegal immigrant – was arrested for the rape of a child. The victim, who was 9 when the attack happened, confirmed that he attacked her. The case sparked national attention after it was highlighted by an Indianapolis doctor that the victim traveled to Indiana to have the abortion due to Ohio’s limitations on abortion.
Gerson Fuentes enters Franklin County Common Pleas Court in Columbus, Ohio, for his bond hearing, July 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon, File)
In August, two Mexican illegal immigrants were charged with the murder of a North Carolina sheriff’s deputy. Alder Alfonso Marin Sotelo and Arturo Marin Sotelo are charged with the murder of Wake County K9 Deputy Ned Byrd, who was shot and killed on Aug. 11 when patrolling a neighborhood in response to multiple 911 calls. ICE told Fox News Digital that the brothers had both entered the U.S. illegally “on an unknown date, at an unknown place” that was not a port of entry – meaning they likely evaded Border Patrol agents.
Arturo Marin Sotelo had been encountered by Border Patrol agents near Naco, Arizona, in June 2010 and had been deported to Mexico via voluntary return through Tucson, Arizona. However, he later re-entered the country.
In October, Canadian illegal immigrant David DePape attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., with a hammer. DePape had entered the U.S. in 2008 and overstayed his visa.
The same month, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant was arrested for the stabbing of eight people on a sidewalk in Las Vegas, killing two of them. Yoni Barrios allegedly began his rampage after a group of showgirls refused to take a picture with him. He reportedly used what authorities described as a “large knife with a long blade” and began attacking when they rebuffed him.
Stabbing spree suspect Yoni Barrios makes his initial court appearance at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (AP)
2023
In April, Salvadoran national Carlos Dominguez was charged with stabbing two men to death in California, two days apart. In May, he stabbed a homeless woman multiple times, but she survived. He had entered the U.S. in 2009 as an unaccompanied minor.
The same month in Texas, Mexican and multiple deportee Francsico Oropesa Perez-Torrez accused of entering his neighbor’s home before midnight and shooting five people dead, including a third-grade boy. Others in the household had asked Oropesa to stop firing a rifle in his yard that late because a 1-month-old baby was trying to sleep. A source with the Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Oropesa had been deported five times between 2009-2016.
In May, Jose Roberto Hernandez-Espinal – a Salvadoran illegal immigrant – was arrested for allegedly raping a woman and a 15-year-old girl. He had reportedly entered the U.S. in 2013. Court documents allege that Hernandez-Espinal pointed a machete at a woman’s back and led her to a secluded part of the woods before raping her.
In June, police in Virginia arrested a Honduran national for breaking into an apartment and attempting to abduct a 4-year-old girl, Fox 5 reported. He had reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2018, and ICE had filed multiple detainers against him in 2021 and 2022, but they have not been honored in the sanctuary county in which he lived.
Francisco Oropesa, 39, a Mexican national, is suspected of killing five people near Cleveland, Texas, April 28, 2023. (Fox News)
In August, a Venezuelan migrant was accused of raping a woman in front a 3-year-old in Erie County, New York. Prosecutors say the suspect and victim knew each other, and the alleged crime is said to have occurred in front of their 3-year-old child, who was also present in the hotel room.
In Texas, in September, Mexican national Juan Vicente Zavala Lopez allegedly shot a police officer in a car chase after killing his roommate. Zavala Lopez is said to have a lengthy criminal history, has been deported nine times before and spent 18 months in a Texas state prison in addition to facing charges in California.
In December, 16-year-old high school cheerleader Lizbeth Medina was stabbed to death in her apartment in Jackson County, Texas, allegedly by Mexican national Rafael Govea Romero, a visa overstayer who was on probation for burglary.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant who had been deported four times between 2009 and 2015 was arrested after allegedly killing a mother and her son in a car crash that police say involved alcohol. Jose Guadalupe Menjivar-Alaswas first convicted of DWI on Aug. 4, 2007, and received subsequent convictions for the same offense on Dec. 7, 2016, and May 7, 2019. He was also convicted of driving with alcohol on Sept. 16, 2007.
Also in December, Jose Santiago Chairez was arrested for the shooting death of two sisters in their home in Dallas, Texas, while he also allegedly shot his daughter during the same incident. Chairez allegedly shot sisters Catalina Valdez Andrade, 47, and Merced Andrade Bailon, 43, in the head inside their home and shot his daughter in the arm.
2024
In January, Alonzo Pierre Mingo, a former ICE detainee was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, with intent, for the killings inside a suburban Minneapolis house, where he reportedly used his seasonal UPS uniform to pose as a worker to gain access along with two accomplices. Police said the shooting was a drug-related incident and occurred as two children under the age of 5 looked on.
“The older child can be seen entering the bedroom shortly thereafter, crying hysterically,” police said in a probable cause statement. “Another subsequent video shows the younger child enter the bedroom to check out the female until the older child pulls the younger child away from the deceased female’s body and out of the room.”
Meanwhile, in New York City, a police officer was brutally beaten by a mob of illegal immigrants – as authorities were dealing with a flood of primarily Venezuelan migrants into the sanctuary city. Some of them fled the city, while Jhoan Boada, 22, was arrested later and then released before flipping the bird to waiting reporters.
In February, Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley was beaten to death, allegedly by a Venezuelan illegal immigrant, while she was out for a jog on the University of Georgia campus. The suspect, Jose Ibarra, was encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol in September 2022 and released on parole into the U.S. He would travel to New York City and be charged with child endangerment and driving crime. ICE said he was released before they could issue a detainer.
Jose Ibarra was arrested on Feb. 23 in connection with Laken Riley’s Feb. 22 murder in Athens, Georgia. (Clarke County Sheriffs Office)
Months later, he would be accused in the death of Riley. The case highlighted the challenges facing immigration enforcement, who have had their priorities narrowed under the Biden administration to focus on national security and public safety threats – but who are also facing resistance from sanctuary cities, which limits local police cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
The same month as Riley’s death, Honduran national Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana was arrested in Kenner, Louisiana for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl at knifepoint in a park and stabbing another man during a robbery. Police warned that they are often hindered from dealing with illegal immigrants due to the lack of identifiers and use of aliases. Castellanos-Orellana had reportedly entered the U.S. via Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2023, at a time when the state was dealing with a massive surge in migration.
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Also in February, Nilson Trejo-Granados was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a 2-year-old child in Maryland. Police said he was caught in a shootout between two gangs. Trejo-Granados is not accused of firing the weapon that killed the victim, but he is alleged to have been in a car with a group of people connected to the shootout.
In August, David Davon-Bonilla was accused of attacking a 46-year-old woman in Brooklyn’s famed Coney Island, forcibly raping her at knifepoint alongside an accomplice.
The same month, authorities confirmed the arrest of an illegal immigrant boyfriend of a Virginia mother who was arrested after her two young sons were found chained to a post by their ankles. Wendi Del Cid Rodriguez and Franklin Arquimedes Viera-Guevara allegedly told investigators they would chain the boys at their ankles for short periods of time to “scare them” so they would not leave the home.
ICE confirmed to Fox that the suspect is a Salvadoran illegal immigrant previously deported in 2019, but he reentered as a “gotaway.”
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In September, ICE announced the arrest of a number of illegal immigrant criminals from Martha’s Vineyard – the liberal vacation hotspot where Florida Gov Ron DeSantis had flown migrants on a private airplane. Among those arrested in late August was 24-year-old Brazilian illegal immigrant Warley Neto. Neto, who illegally entered the United States through the Paso Del Norte border region of Texas and Mexico in 2018, is facing five counts of raping a Massachusetts minor.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, police announced the arrest of multiple suspected Tren de Aragua members in relation to a shooting that occured in Aurora near a block of apartments believed to have been taken over by the gang.
The Venezuelan nationals, ranging in ages from 19 through 24, all crossed the southern border through Texas illegally in 2022 and 2023, under the Biden administration. All four were arrested by Aurora police and ICE has placed detainer requests on two of them.