Maryland authorities arrested an illegal migrant for murdering his girlfriend several months after he was released into the country by the Biden-Harris administration.
Gerber Luis Sanchez-Centeno, a 23-year-old Salvadoran national living in the U.S. unlawfully, was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department on Sept. 20 and charged with the murder of his girlfriend, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The Salvadoran man had previously been arrested by Border Patrol in June, but he was placed into a program that allowed him to avoid detention and be released into the interior of the U.S.
Border Patrol agents apprehended Sanchez after he was observed crossing illegally into the U.S near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, according to ICE. He was then placed into the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, which typically allows illegal migrants to avoid physical detention by tracking them with a GPS monitor, but he was terminated from ATD on Aug. 8 after he absconded from the program.
At some point after his release by federal immigration officials, Sanchez made his way to Montgomery County, Maryland.
Dania Carolina Cruz-Mejia’s lifeless body was discovered by her brother in her Gaithersburg home on Sept. 18 after a 911 call was made about a fight between a female tenant and her boyfriend, according to Fox 5 DC. Authorities quickly identified the boyfriend, Sanchez, as a suspect and charged him for first-degree murder two days later.
Cruz-Mejia’s brother exchanged texts with Sanchez after discovering her body, according to Fox 5 DC. Sanchez reportedly told the brother that he was sorry, that he did not intend to kill her and that he would be turning himself over to law enforcement.
Sanchez remains in the custody of Montgomery County authorities, ICE confirmed on Wednesday. The agency also confirmed they have placed a detainer request with the Montgomery County Detention Center, which asks the detention center to notify ICE should they release him from their custody.
Montgomery County authorities have a controversial history with ICE detainer compliance.
County Executive Marc Elrich in November 2019 backpedaled on an executive order he signed that limited local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with ICE following months of national headlines about illegal migrants in the county committing egregious crimes, including rapes. His new directive allowed ICE agents to assume custody of illegal migrants in special “identified areas” in the Montgomery County Jail.
The DCNF reached out to the director of the Montgomery County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation about how they would comply with the detainer request for Sanchez, but did not receive a response from their office.
This incident also marks another high-profile instance of an illegal migrant on the ATD program going on to allegedly commit other egregious crimes.
The two Venezuelan nationals charged with killing Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old Texas girl who was raped and strangled to death, were reportedly released into the country under the ATD program. Josefina Cardona-Cardona, an illegal migrant from Guatemala arrested for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill two witnesses involved in her son’s murder case, had also been referred into the ATD program.
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