Police in Garner, North Carolina, arrested 25-year-old Angel Israel Deras-Rivas on August 2 in connection with the drowning death of a 14-month-old child.
Deras-Rivas, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States illegally through Texas in October 2023, has been charged with murder and felony child abuse.
According to court documents and local arrest warrants, Deras-Rivas was acting as the child’s stepfather and husband to the child’s mother when he allegedly left the toddler unattended in a bathtub filled with water, resulting in the child’s death.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an immigration detainer with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office on the day of the arrest, requesting that local authorities hold Deras-Rivas in custody rather than releasing him on bond or after local proceedings conclude.
“This criminal illegal alien has been charged with murder and felony child abuse after letting a 14-month-old drown in a bathtub,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a statement. “That child would still be alive today if it weren’t for the reckless open-border policies of the Biden Administration that released this criminal into our country in the first place. ICE is calling on officials in North Carolina to commit to not releasing this killer from jail, and to turn him over to ICE custody so we can get him out of our country.”
Records confirm that Deras-Rivas was processed by federal authorities upon his entry in late 2023 and subsequently released into the interior of the country pending immigration proceedings.
He remains held at the Wake County Detention Center pending his initial court appearances on the state charges.
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