A Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient-turned-illegal-alien was reportedly caught red-handed vandalizing a World War II Iowa Jima monument in Quantico, Virginia – causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage – federal sources and local police confirm.
“Multiple federal sources confirm to @FoxNews that the suspect arrested for using a sledgehammer to behead a WW2 Iwo Jima monument in Quantico, VA on Tuesday is a Mexican illegal alien & former DACA recipient whose legal status expired this year,” Fox News Correspondent Bill Mellugin reported Thursday:
“Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano has now been charged with felony destruction of property and trespass with intent to damage property.
“Per federal sources, Soriano illegally crossed into the U.S. in December 1999. He was granted DACA by the Obama administration in 2014 and had it extended for years, most recently by the Biden admin in 2024, but he lost his DACA status in August of this year when it wasn’t renewed by the Trump Administration.”
“WaPo write up on the case,” immediately followed up, drawing attention to The Washington Post’s article reporting on the incident – which identified Soriano as the culprit, but made no mention of his former DACA designation and current status as an illegal alien.
Instead, The Post framed Soriano simply as a “Virginia man”:
“Virginia man charged in damage of Iwo Jima statue near Quantico”
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“Prince William County police said a man took a sledgehammer to the Iwo Jima statue near the Quantico Marine base in Virginia, causing what they estimated was hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.”
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“Maldonado Soriano, 27, of Stafford, was arrested without incident, the report said.”
“This criminal illegal alien’s dream is over,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox News in a statement, calling attention to Soriano’s contempt for the country that allowed him to remain an extra 12 years, courtesy of America’s DACA policy:
“Maldonado Soriano disrespected our brave service members and defaced a beautiful monument that honored their sacrifice. President Trump has secured our border and is deporting illegal criminals who hate our country and our values. The socialist Democrats want to go back to open borders and flood our communities with dangerous criminal illegal aliens.”
DACA grants temporary permission to remain in the U.S. to certain designated illegal aliens who illegally entered the country as children. Since it is a temporary stay of deportation, it must be renewed every two years, depending on the illegal alien’s particular circumstances.
