The alleged ringleader of the foiled terror attack targeting Sunday’s UFC Freedom 250 White House event is an illegal alien allowed to remain in the U.S. by the Obama Administration under its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
“The alleged RINGLEADER of the failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 is an ILLEGAL ALIEN,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported in a social media post on Thursday, noting that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking custody of him, via a detainer request:
“Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, from Mexico, planned, organized, and directed the planned attack. He was arrested by the @FBI on June 14, and @ICEgov has lodged a detainer against him.
“Alvarez FAILED to leave the country when his B2 tourist visa expired in 2001. He was granted DACA by the Obama administration.”
“This illegal alien should NEVER have been allowed in our country — and we will ensure he faces justice and is swiftly removed from our nation,” the DHS post adds.
The 31 year-old illegal alien from Mexico was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska on Sunday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for his alleged involvement in the plot to carry out a mass-casualty attack against government officials and other attendees at Sunday’s event at the White House.
Alvarez is one of five suspected co-conspirators were arrested over the weekend – and is their alleged ringleader. The FBI has determined that Alvarez detailed the plot in an encrypted group chat, including the planned use of “counter sniper(s) and drones,” with the explicit intention of being “as deadly as we can get.”
Alvarez entered the United States on a B2 visitor visa and failed to depart before it expired in December 2001. In 2014, the Obama Administration granted him Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), enabling him to avoid deportation.
“From his home here in Nebraska, Alvarez allegedly directed and recruited others across the country to conduct a horrific attack against government officials in a mass casualty event. Our team worked around the clock to locate and apprehend Alvarez, take him into custody, and collect crucial evidence,” Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha field office said in Tuesday in a statement released by the U.S. Justice Department.
The contentious DACA anti-deportation program for illegal aliens was announced by the Obama Administration’s U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2012. It was designed to allow illegal aliens who entered the U.S. as children to remain in the country for renewable two-year periods. It provides recipients with protection from removal and potential eligibility for employment authorization. DACA applications are adjudicated by DHS's U.S. Citizenship and
During the period of deferred action, a DACA recipient is considered to be in a period of stay authorized by DHS. A DACA recipient may be granted permission to travel abroad for educational, employment, or humanitarian purposes. According to USCIS, it has discretion to terminate a DACA grant at any time. It will typically provide the DACA recipient with a notice and an opportunity to respond before termination but may not do so in the case of an individual who is convicted of certain types of criminal offenses.
DACA recipients are not granted, or put on a pathway to, a lawful immigration status. If otherwise eligible, however, a DACA recipient may be able to obtain lawful immigration status under an existing immigration pathway. According to DHS, more than 100,000 DACA recipients have become lawful permanent residents (LPRs).
The DACA initiative was announced by then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in a June 15, 2012, DHS memorandum entitled, "Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion with Respect to Individuals Who Came to the United States as Children."DHS has defined "prosecutorial discretion" as "the legal authority to choose whether or not to take action against an individual for committing an offense."
