Federal authorities have stepped in after a 19-year-old was arrested for a brutal homicide in Texas, requesting that local jailers keep him behind bars rather than allowing for his release.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged an arrest detainer for Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, a Venezuelan national accused of murdering his colleague with a sledgehammer.
The case began when the body of Juan Antonio Salinas Leija, a carpenter, was discovered by his sister inside a home under renovation on Goldensong Court in the Northgate Crossing community.
Court documents and local reports indicate that Salinas Leija was struck multiple times with a sledgehammer. Law enforcement eventually tracked down Chirino-Leonice on April 12 in Pasadena, Texas, where he was allegedly spotted driving the victim’s vehicle.
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Records show that Chirino-Leonice originally entered the United States in November 2023. At the time, U.S. Border Patrol apprehended him as an unaccompanied minor, and he was subsequently released into the country’s interior.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from Department officials regarding current border policies. “This criminal illegal alien from Venezuela is accused of savagely beating a co-worker to death with a sledgehammer and stealing his car,” stated Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “This barbaric criminal illegal alien should have never been released into our country by the Biden administration. If you import the third world, you become the third world.”
This arrest marks the second high-profile case this month involving an undocumented individual and a blunt force weapon, following a similar incident in Florida where a woman was killed with a hammer. READ: Florida Mom Murdered With Hammer By Illegal Immigrant, Trump Warns Of “Border Bloodbath”
Chirino-Leonice remains in custody pending the legal process and the federal detainer request.
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