San Jose, California, police arrested a criminal illegal immigrant Monday in the February murder of a local woman.
Police say Carlos Eduardo Arevalo Carranza, 24, was a gang member with a long criminal record that did not prompt authorities to deport him, according to Fox News. Carranza is alleged to have stalked Bambi Larson, 59, before stabbing her.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials had detained Carranza nine times, and the suspect was released twice from a local penitentiary before Larson’s murder, according to The Mercury News.
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said the county has been ignoring a policy to honor ICE orders at Santa Clara County Jail, which “undermines public safety and violates common sense.” (RELATED: 22-Year-Old Son Of Knoxville Fire Captain Killed By Illegal Immigrant)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via REUTERS
Police used DNA from a T-shirt found at the scene of the crime to locate the suspect who had previously been arrested for methamphetamine possession, at which time a DNA sample was obtained.
Carranza “stalked this San Jose neighborhood and his victim. He is a San Jose transient … and is a self-admitant gang member,” San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia told a news conference Tuesday, Mercury News says.
The police chief said Carranza was first detained by U.S. Customs and Border Control guards at the Texas border in 2013 and deported. He apparently illegally entered the United States sometime in the next two years because he was arrested and convicted of burglary in 2015 and the following year was arrested on multiple charges ranging from resisting arrest to battery. (RELATED: Brother Of Cop Killed By Illegal Immigrant Breaks Silence)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), officers block the Otay Mesa port of entry from Mexico into the United States early on December 1, 2018, as seen from Tijuana, Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Garcia confirmed that police officers would not have known that Carranza was in the country illegally because they would not have asked him. He noted: “We are here to protect and embrace our otherwise law-abiding, undocumented residents. We are not here — nor should we be here — to shield admitted gangsters or violent criminals regarded less of immigration status”
In the wake of the riots that engulfed San Jose after a 2016 rally by then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Garcia notably said that his objective as the city’s police chief was to established “progressive” policing.
According to Fox, the San Jose Police Officers’ Association issued a statement criticizing immigration policies that do not recognize that “there’s a distinct difference between a Dreamer who commits a victimless crime and a violent serial sexual predator with multiple offenses.”