The suspect accused of killing five people including an eight-year-old in Texas on Friday is an illegal immigrant who was deported multiple times.
The alleged murderer, Francisco Oropesa, had been deported from the United States five times, a source in Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Fox News. Oropesa, a Mexican national, is the target of a manhunt in Texas after he allegedly killed five of his neighbors when one of them complained about him shooting his rifle late at night. The murders occurred in Cleveland, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
Oropesa last had a run-in with ICE in 2016. The FBI said on Sunday that it has "no leads" in the search for Oropesa, and law enforcement agencies are cumulatively offering at least $80,000 for information on his whereabouts. "We do not know where he is, that’s why we’ve come up with this reward," FBI special agent James Smith said Sunday.
The killings come as border agents brace for a potential surge of migrants in the coming weeks following the May 11 expiration of Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that granted agents power to turn away migrants for health concerns. With the lapse of the pandemic national health emergency this month, the immigration rule also expires.
Border agents have already seen a surge. Border Patrol agents reported 162,317 migrant encounters in March, 32,000 more than the month before.
Border agents have apprehended at least 69 people on the terror watch list this fiscal year, which is on pace to beat 2022’s total of 98. Only eight individuals on that list were caught between 2017 and 2020.