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Federal agents have issued a warrant for the arrest of an illegal immigrant felon accused of murder and robbery after he choked a New York taxi driver to death earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Saturday.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has taken into custody Santos Paulino Vasquez Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala accused of brutally killing a taxi driver during a fare dispute on December 1 in Brewster, New York.
The body of the victim, Aurelio Junio Orbez, was found floating in a local reservoir on December 7, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“Santos Vasquez Ramírez should never have been in our country in the first place and had the opportunity to kill Aurelio Junio Orbez in a horrific manner,” Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
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Santos Paulino Vasquez Ramirez was arrested and charged with murder and robbery on December 12. (Putnam County Sheriff’s Office)
The Department of Homeland Security said Vasquez Ramirez entered the country illegally in 2013 and was later released into the country under the Obama administration.
An immigration judge issued him a final order of deportation in early 2016.
“Open border policies have deadly consequences,” McLaughlin said, adding that Santos Vasquez Ramirez would be transferred to federal custody. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement has provided a detainer to local authorities to ensure this illegal criminal alien is not allowed back into America’s neighborhoods.”
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Aurelio Junio Orbez, 66, of Danbury, Connecticut, was found dead in Croton Falls Reservoir on December 7. (Department of Homeland Security)
McLaughlin added that under the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, “ICE is targeting the worst of the worst.”
In a year-end report released Friday, the Department of Homeland Security said more than 2.5 million illegal immigrants have left the United States since President Donald Trump returned to office this year, resulting in “the most secure border in American history.”
ICE has provided a detainer for Santos Paulino Vasquez Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala accused of killing a taxi driver during a fare dispute on December 1 in Brewster, New York. (Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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An estimated 1.9 million immigrants have been self-deported and more than 622,000 have been forced out since Trump took office on January 20, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.