After Being Deported 7 Times, Illegal Returns to US, Stabs 61-Year-Old Stranger in Neck
A 39-year-old illegal immigrant has been charged with attempted murder after an “unprovoked and brutal” stabbing took place at a California market in December.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News that Ricardo Velasquez-Romero was detained last month and booked at the Sonoma County Jail after he allegedly attacked an unnamed 61-year-old man at the Lola’s Market in Santa Rosa.
Velasquez-Romero was reportedly seen on surveillance footage stabbing the man in the neck, sending him to the hospital in critical condition. The man’s condition has since been upgraded to stable.
Santa Rose police stated that the victim and Velasquez-Romero were seated at different tables and hadn’t spoken to each other prior to the attack, according to Fox News.
“At one point, the suspect stood up and walked toward the victim,” the police department stated in a news release. “The suspect had an unknown stabbing instrument in his hand and stabbed the victim once in the neck. The suspect then fled the area on foot.”
Databases from the Department of Homeland Security indicate that Velasquez-Romero, who was residing in Santa Rosa at the time of the crime, is an illegal immigrant who had been deported back to his native Mexico seven times since 2007.
James Schwab, a spokesperson for ICE, stated that “Records indicate Mr. Velasquez also has multiple prior criminal convictions, including those from felony drug and weapons charges.”
Schwab added that ICE “continues to closely monitor the legal proceedings of Mr. Velasquez,” and has requested to obtain custody of Velasquez-Romero after he is released from local custody. However,
As noted by The Daily Caller, this particular case is tragically not an anomaly.
According to a recent report from the DHS, between October 2011 and Sept. 30, 2017, “372,098 non-U.S. citizen offenders were removed from the United States after conviction of an aggravated felony or two or more felonies.”
Velasquez-Romero’s case highlights once again a glaring illegal immigration problem present in the state of California.
In October 2017, Golden State Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 54 into law, effectively rendering California a “sanctuary state.”
The bill, which went into effect on Jan. 1, bans California police “from asking people about their immigration status or participating in federal immigration enforcement activities in most cases,” as reported by Fox News.
“These are uncertain times for undocumented Californians and their families, and this bill strikes a balance that will protect public safety, while bringing a measure of comfort to those families who are now living in fear everyday,” Brown said the day he signed the bill, the U.K. Daily Mail reported.
The decision is significant as the state is home to an estimated 2.3 million illegal immigrants, and was also the site where 32-year-old Kate Steinle was fatally wounded by an illegal immigrant who had been deported from the state five times before the incident occurred.
As reported by The Western Journal, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate was acquitted in the 2015 murder of Steinle in November. Steinle was killed after she was struck by a bullet that ricocheted off a San Francisco pier.
Garcia Zarate fired that bullet, however, prosecutors failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he had done so with murderous intent.
The decision didn’t sit well with many who believed that the incident could have been avoided had the state not been so lax about letting an illegal immigrant back in after he had been deported multiple times.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
