A 29-year-old illegal alien who is accused of rape and murder in a July 24 hammer attack avoided deportation twice in the past 15 months.
First, in May 2014, because a local sheriff’s department declined to honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detainer request and again July 16 after ICE determined that the Mexican national was no longer a priority for deportation under the Obama administration’s new immigration policies.
Victor Aureliano Hernandez Ramirez and an accomplice, Jose Fernando Villagomez, allegedly broke into the Santa Maria home of Marilyn Pharis on the early morning of July 24. Pharis, 64, was bludgeoned with a hammer and sexually assaulted. She died eight days after the attack, prompting murder charges against Ramirez. He is being held on $1 million bond.
But Ramirez’s mere presence in the U.S. raises questions given that last month’s brutal attack wasn’t his first act of violence. Nor was it his first time in law enforcement custody. He’s been arrested several times for battery, drugs and for violating probation.
So what explains ICE’s change of heart on filing a detainer for Ramirez?
The culprit seems to be President Obama’s new immigration enforcement priority policies. In November, he announced that his administration would focus only on deporting illegal aliens deemed to be violent criminal felons and national security threats. The new schedule put a low priority on illegal aliens who committed misdemeanors, even those that involved violent acts.
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