Communities across the country have been brought to the brink by illegal immigrants who have taken advantage of the loose southern border under the Biden-Harris administration and victimized innocent Americans.
The efforts of the police and prosecutors were exemplified with the arrests or convictions of these migrants for their violent crimes in 2024.
1. Guatemalan immigrant accused of setting woman on fire on New York subway
Sebastian Zapeta, a previously deported immigrant from Guatemala, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of arson after a woman was set on fire and burned to death on a subway train on Dec. 12. 22 in Brooklyn, New York.
ILLEGAL MIGRANT CHARGED WITH MURDER AFTER WOMAN BURNED ON SUBWAY
Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire on a subway train in New York, appears in court on December 24, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis means via Poole)
Surveillance video showed the suspect, believed to be Zapeta, approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly sleeping on the F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station.
Then it was set on fire.
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly approached the victim,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference, adding that the victim was seated. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which was fully engulfed within seconds.”
Zapeta was arrested by the Border Patrol and deported by the Trump administration on June 7, 2018, after illegally crossed into Sonoita, Arizona, a week before that, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Jeff Carter told Fox News. Zapeta later entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and at an unknown location, Carter said.
2. Venezuelan migrant Jose Ibarra convicted of murdering Laken Riley
In November, a Georgia judge convicted and sentenced Jose Ibarra, the suspect charged with the murder Student at Augusta Laken Riley University on the University of Georgia campus in February.
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge Patrick Haggard found Ibarra guilty on 10 counts of the indictment, including one count of malicious murder, three counts of aggravated murder, one count of kidnapping, one count of aggravated assault with intent to rape, one count of aggravated battery, one count of interfering with a 911 call, one count of tampering with evidence and one count as “peeping tom”.
Ibarra pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Jose Ibarra, left, was found guilty of 10 counts in the death of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, right. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, Pool)
Prosecutors said Ibarra, a 26-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela, attacked and killed Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, as she ran on trails near Lake Herrick on University of Georgia campus in Athens on the morning of February 22.
LAKEN RILEY’S MURDER: JUDGE SENTENCED STUDENT’S KILLER AFTER FAMILY CALLED ‘MONSTER’ IN COURT
3. Mexican citizen arrested for murdering girlfriend after leaving US
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, who was deported to his native Mexico in 2020, was arrested in March on a murder charge in connection with the killing of a Michigan woman after allegedly entering the United States illegally.
Ortiz-Vite, who is being held in the Kent County Jail in Michigan, faces charges of aggravated murder, open murder, carjacking, carrying a concealed weapon and using a firearm after the body of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was found. discovered on US 131 in downtown Grand Rapids.
The couple was in a romantic relationship at the time of the murder, police said.
Brandon Ortiz-Vite, who is being held in the Kent County Jail in Michigan, is charged with murder and other crimes after the body of 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was discovered on US 131 in downtown Grand Rapids. (Mavi Garcia, Kent County Jail)
Ortiz-Vite, 25, “was arrested by Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Detroit on August 31, 2020 and given a notice to appear. He was ordered removed by an immigration judge from the Department of Justice’s Executive Office of Immigration Review ( EOIR) on September 24, 2020 and was transferred to Mexico on September 29, 2020,” an ICE spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
“On an unknown date and place, Ortiz-Vite re-entered the United States without being inspected by an immigration officer.
“On March 24, 2024, ERO Detroit met with Ortiz-Vite after he was arrested by Michigan State Police and charged with murder and other crimes,” the spokesperson added. “ERO Detroit placed Ortiz-Vite in custody at Kent County Jail.”
4. Honduran citizen accused of attempted rape on a hiking trail, sexual abuse
During a press conference in November, Herndon, Virginia Police Department announced that Denis Humberto Naverette Romero, 31, was charged with kidnapping with intent to defile and rape a stranger he caught off guard.
On Nov. 24, officers responded to the W&OD Trail for a call about a woman who approached a passerby and asked for help after saying she had been raped.
The victim told police that Romero grabbed her, threw her to the ground and raped her.
Denis Humberto Naverette Romero, an illegal migrant from Honduras, has been charged with raping a woman on a popular hiking trail near Washington, DC, just days after he was released from prison on another sex crime charge. (Herndon Police)
The woman managed to fight off the attacker and run for help. The police soon found Romero.
Romero, a Honduran national, has a documented history of sexual assault and indecent exposure in the region dating back to 2022, according to Herndon Police Chief Maggie DeBoard.
A source close to the matter told Fox News Digital Romero is homeless and has been in and out of prison but has never served any significant time. Prosecutors also dropped multiple charges against him for less serious offenses, the source explained.
5. Migrant wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic accused of murdering a family in New York
Julio Cesar Pimentel-Soriano, originally from the Dominican Republic, was arrested in September for the alleged murder of a family of four in New York at their home.
August 31 Fraime Ubaldo, 30; Marangely Moreno-Santiago, 26; Evangeline Ubaldo-Moreno, 4; and Sebastian Ubaldo-Moreno, 2, were killed in their home, the Irondequoit Police Department wrote in a post on X.
“This was a dreadful scene,” Irondequoit Chief of Police Scott Peters said at a press conference. – In almost 32 years of working in this business, I have not seen anything like it.
Julio Cesar Pimentel-Soriano (34) from the Dominican Republic was arrested in September in the murder of a family of four in upstate New York. (WHAT)
Police arrested Pimentel-Soriano on September 7.
“It appears that Mr. Soriano entered the island of Puerto Rico illegally and obtained false identification from New York,” Irondequoit police said. “With that identification, he was free to travel from Puerto Rico to the mainland United States.”
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Pimentel-Soriano was wanted for murder in 2019 in his own country at the time of his arrest, according to the department.
Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin, Michael Dorgan and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
