This article was originally published on Washington Times - Politics. You can read the original article HERE
An illegal immigrant who was caught with a machete, a knife and a brick outside the U.S. Capitol was previously in the custody of federal authorities twice but was released each time, according to new data obtained by the House Judiciary Committee.
Jose Leonardo Marquez-Marquez, a Venezuelan with no legal visa to be in the U.S., was first arrested at the southern border in August 2022. He was released a day later after authorities said they didn’t have space to hold him.
He waited 14 months before showing up at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to get his official immigration court summons. ICE officers determined he was a priority for arrest and deportation, but released him again, the Judiciary Committee said in a report provided to The Washington Times.
Two months later, he was arrested outside the Capitol last Dec. 26 after officers found his behavior suspicious. He was found with the weapons.
ICE at that time said he “posed a significant threat.”
He is currently being held in an ICE detention center in Virginia.
SEE ALSO: Migrant ‘crime tourists’ arrested for $1 million robbery
The Judiciary Committee said Mr. Marquez-Marquez’s case is the latest in a string of high-profile criminal cases where the central figure is an illegal immigrant caught and released under President Biden.
Committee investigators questioned both of Mr. Marquez-Marquez’s releases.
They said the 2022 release, which authorities blamed on lack of space, is curious because Homeland Security data obtained by the committee shows there was “capacity to detain” him at that time.
The 2023 release, after he checked in and collected his immigration court summons, was even more striking.
“Despite ICE issuing a warrant for arrest for Marquez-Marquez on October 5, 2023, and an ICE officer determining that he was a priority for arrest and removal on the same day, Marquez-Marquez remained free in the United States,” the committee concluded.
He was released under condition that he not commit any crimes or associate with gang members.
Illegal immigrants are supposed to be issued their immigration court summons at the border if they are being released. But the Biden administration has been so overwhelmed by the surge of illegal immigrants that it released hundreds of thousands of people without issuing them the paperwork, meaning they technically weren’t in deportation proceedings.
The information about Mr. Marquez-Marquez comes from his “a-file,” the government’s official immigration record for him. The committee obtained the file from Homeland Security earlier this summer.
According to the file, in addition to the machete, he had a fake visa and a Social Security card when he was arrested.
The file says the U.S. attorney’s office recommended that local weapons-possession charges be dropped against Mr. Marquez-Marquez so he could be turned over to ICE.
Other illegal immigrants whose a-files the committee has obtained include Daniel Hernandez-Martinez, a Venezuelan who racked up 22 criminal charges in just six months in New York; Jose Barrera Amaya, a Honduran accused of stabbing two people at a laundromat; and Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, a Guatemalan accused of killing an 11-year-old girl in Texas.
Each of those illegal immigrants was encountered by border authorities and then released into the country.
Mr. Garcia Rodriguez’s case is particularly troubling. He came to the U.S. as a 17-year-old without parents, which meant he was sent to a government-run shelter for kids while he awaited placement with a sponsor. The person who sponsored him had a history of taking in unrelated migrant children but failing to live up to the conditions of sponsorship.
The file also indicated the sponsor may have had a criminal record in his home country of Guatemala, the Judiciary Committee said.
The caseworker questioned whether Mr. Garcia Rodriguez should be placed in the home, but he was placed anyway.
The sponsor and the teen stopped answering inquiries from the government after the placement, according to the a-file.
Months later, Mr. Garcia Rodriguez would be accused of a brutal slaying of 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez at her father’s apartment in Pasadena, Texas.
This article was originally published by Washington Times - Politics. We only curate news from sources that align with the core values of our intended conservative audience. If you like the news you read here we encourage you to utilize the original sources for even more great news and opinions you can trust!
Comments