U.S. arrests Peruvian gang leader accused of 23 murders previously released in Texas

A notorious Peruvian gang leader has been arrested in New York by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), reports the Associated Press.

The arrest ends an international manhunt that should have ended three months ago.

The gang leader wanted in Peru was detained in May after crossing the border illegally near Roma, Texas, but was released with a “notice to appear” (NTA) before an immigration judge to plead for asylum under Biden administration rules, the AP writes.

Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, who allegedly has the names of his 23 murder victims tattooed on his body, and his girlfriend, Mishelle Sol Ivanna Ortíz Ubillús, were arrested by ICE in Endicott, New York.

NTAs were used previously as a tool to begin deportation proceedings.

“An NTA is a document that instructs an individual to appear before an immigration judge. This is the first step in starting removal proceedings against them,” says the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS) memo about NTAs.

But under Biden, the notices have become a tool for the administration’s catch-and-release program to allow those crossing the border illegally to remain in the U.S. indefinitely.

As even the AP notes, the notices’ rules have changed under Biden.

“U.S. Border Patrol releases tens of thousands of migrants each month who enter illegally with notices to appear in immigration court to pursue asylum or other forms of humanitarian protection,” said the AP.

In the policy memorandum by the CIS explaining NTAs, the word “asylum” never appears.

When Biden was inaugurated in 2021, one of his first acts on his first day in office was to enter a 100-day “pause” in deporting illegal immigrants who were detained at the border. Instead, the illegals were issued NTAs for the purposes of seeking asylum in the U.S.

The 100-day “pause” has stretched out indefinitely.

The notices allow hundreds of thousands of undesirable illegal immigrants, such as Torres-Navarro, to hide in the U.S. without fear of deportation. In fiscal year 2023, the number of illegal immigrants receiving NTAs who have skipped court appearances posted a record-high 159,379 cases, compared to just 8,536 in 2021.

Previously the record was 91,217 in 2019, primarily because of a step-up in deportation enforcement by the Trump administration.  

This time around, however, the increase in numbers of skipped appearances is due to the lax enforcement of the NTAs and the misuse of NTAs as a tool to keep illegal immigrants in the U.S., rather than deport them, under Biden’s rules.  

In addition, 200,000 cases under NTAs have been thrown out by judges because the NTAs weren’t filed in time with the court by Biden’s Department of Homeland Security.  

Jorge Chavez-Cotrina, the head of Peru’s Special Prosecutor’s Office against Organized Crime, told the AP the crimes Torres-Navarro was wanted for include contract killings, extortion and running a criminal organization.  

This isn’t the first high-profile arrest of dangerous criminals who were previously detained and released at the southern border.  

In June, NBC News reported eight suspected terrorists from Tajikistan with ties to the terror group ISIS were arrested by ICE in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles after some of the men were previously detained and released at the southern border.  

One man even used a federal government app to book his asylum court appearance, said NBC.  

The Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Enforcement and Security said last year that “a foreign national with ties to ISIS helped smuggle over 120 nationals from Uzbekistan, Russia,  Georgia, and Chechnya into the United States through the Southwest border.”  

Democrats on the Subcommittee countered that since 1975 no American has been killed in terror attacks by illegal immigrants who came in through the southern border.   

In February ICE arrested 171 so-called “noncitizens” for “murder, homicide or assault against children.”  

The Federation for American Immigration Reform keeps a running tally of serious crimes committed by illegal aliens. Through March it has recorded more than 17 serious crimes committed by illegal immigrants in the U.S just this year.