A Venezuelan illegal alien released at the border in 2023 is now accused of brutally murdering a coworker in Houston.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed to Fox News’ Bill Melugin that the suspect, identified as 26-year-old Venezuelan national Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, is an illegal alien who was previously encountered and released at the southern border by the Biden administration in November 2023.
ICE has now lodged an immigration detainer with Harris County law enforcement, requesting that local authorities hold Chirino-Leonice for federal custody if he is released from the county jail.
Houston-area authorities arrested Chirino-Leonice on April 12 after police say he was found driving the vehicle of his coworker, who had been found beaten to death.
Officials say the two men had been renovating a house together when Chirino-Leonice allegedly used a sledgehammer to bludgeon his coworker to death, then left him to die at the worksite. He was later located and arrested while driving the victim’s car.
In a strongly worded statement, ICE condemned both the crime and the broader policy environment that allowed Chirino-Leonice to be in the country.
“This criminal illegal alien — who never should have been allowed into the country in the first place — is accused of savagely beating a co-worker to death with a sledgehammer and leaving him to die in a house they were renovating together,” the agency said.
“Our officers are working tirelessly to restore integrity to our nation’s immigration system to bring an end to the carnage and unnecessary suffering in this country that’s caused by criminal illegal aliens, and we won’t rest until we’ve accomplished that mission.”
This case adds to a growing list of violent crimes in Texas allegedly committed by illegal aliens who first entered the country under the Biden administration’s border policies.
