Congress Asks HHS: Did 17-Year-Old Murder Suspects Enter US as Unaccompanied Minors?
(CNSNews.com) – The chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees are asking Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell to clarify whether two suspected MS-13 gang members [1] from El Salvador who are accused of an execution-style murder in Massachusetts entered the U.S. through the Obama administration’s Unaccompanied Alien Children [2] (UAC) program.
Jose Vasquez Ardon and Cristian Nunez-Flores, both 17, are charged with murdering 19-year-old Omar Wilfredo Reyes [3], of Everett, Mass. Reyes was shot in the head on January 2 and died the next day at Massachusetts General Hospital.
“Did either Jose Vasquez Ardon or Cristian Nunez-Flores enter the United States as an unaccompanied minor?” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) queried Burwell in a February 9 letter [4].
They also asked Burwell for a “complete copy of the alien file” for each underage murder suspect showing their date of entry into the U.S., whether they were designated as an unaccompanied minor by HHS, and whether they applied for any immigration benefits, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals [5], which exempts from deportation those who illegally enter the U.S. before their 16th birthday.
An attorney representing Nunez-Flores told the court during his arraignment that the 17-year-old moved to the U.S. from El Salvador a year and a half ago without his parents, The Boston Globe reported [6].
According to HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement, a total of 2,509 unaccompanied minors [7] were released to sponsors in Massachusetts between October 2013 and December 2015.
Middlesex District Attorney Carrie Spiros said that evidence collected during the month-long murder investigation “indicated that Mr. Nunez and Mr. Ardon are affiliated with the gang MS-13,” according [1] to The Boston Herald . [1]
In July 2014, Judicial Watch reported [8] that Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13 [9]), one of the most violent street gangs operating in the U.S., was “actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing illegal immigrant minors and they’re using Red Cross phones to communicate.”
On January 29, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced [10] the arrests of 56 alleged leaders and members of MS-13 in the Boston area on federal charges, including racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, and drug trafficking.
“During the course of this investigation, it is alleged that MS-13 actively recruited prospective members, known as ‘paros,’ inside local high schools from communities with significant immigrant populations from Central America... Prospective members were typically 14 or 15 years old.
“Under the strict rules of MS-13, as communicated to the local ‘cliques’ by the leaders of MS-13 in El Salvador, these prospective members must engage in significant violent criminal activity on behalf of the criminal organization, usually the killing of a rival gang member, in order to become a full-fledged member of MS-13, known as a ‘homeboy’,” according to a DOJ press release.
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