The Innocent Always Pay the Price for Government’s Immigration Failures

How a Cartel Hitman Convicted of Murder in Dallas is now a Free Man in Mexico

Photo by Hassan Rafhaan on Unsplash

In January 2007, in a case of mistaken identity, a young couple and their unborn baby girl were viciously tortured and murdered by Nicolas Monarrez. Several reports described the horrific details of the actions leading to their deaths. Luis Campos (20) and Linoshka Torres (18), who was over 5 months pregnant, were kidnapped, tortured, and electrocuted over several days until they were beaten to death.

Monarrez and co-conspirators Jorge Banda and Frank Estrella ditched the lifeless bodies over a bridge near the murder sites in Oak Cliff. According to reports, Monarrez and accomplices had ties to the Gulf Cartel, a ruthless criminal transnational organization. Torres, Campos, and the unborn child were brutally murdered by Monarrez, who falsely believed the victims were responsible for stolen money. 

"They were cut up, they were thrown over a bridge" – Rachel Torres: KHOU11 News.

The victims' families have suffered reoccurring trauma after multiple failures by the justice system. After a trial that took 4 years to occur, Monarrez and Estrella were found guilty yet received sentencing of only 15 years for the violent murders due to the alleged mishandling of the confession and evidence.

The convicted cartel co-conspirator Estrella was released and paroled in 2017 after serving just over 5 years of the 15-year sentence. According to KHOU11, Estrella moved in with his relatives at a home across the street from a school after being released. The latest update on Estrella by WFAA last month states that Dallas Police Department has been searching for Estrella with an active warrant since 2021. 

Then, just last month, the victim's families received yet another disturbing update. According to ABC 8 WFAA, before beginning his disturbingly light sentencing of 15 years, Monarrez, the mastermind behind the demonic murders, was sent to federal prison first to serve a 10-year sentence for unaffiliated drug charges. After time served in federal prison, Monarrez should have been sent into the custody of the Texas Department of Corrections to begin serving the light state sentence for the violent murders. 

However, in February 2021, instead of being transferred to Texas, the victim's sister Rachel Torres received a letter from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) notifying her of the deportation of Monarrez to Mexico. In other words, Monarrez never served a single day for the horrendous murders of 3 innocent people and is "a free man in Mexico" with doubt as to whether it is possible to bring him back to the U.S. to serve his sentence. 

While federal agencies allege the premature deportation of Monarrez was a mistake, it is essential to note that since 2021, overall Enforcement and Removal Operations (EROs) of criminal aliens have continued to be shockingly low compared to the prior administration. According to DHS, the ERO program aims to "ensure convicted criminal non-citizens do not remain in the United States." Removing violent criminals who are in the U.S. illegally should be a no-brainer.

Source: DHS FY 24 Budget Overview

With high crime rates spanning across the U.S., common sense would dictate it is not a good idea to release convicted criminals back into communities where the likelihood of reoffending is extraordinarily high. Criminal illegal aliens, by definition, should not be here to begin with. Furthermore, with millions of unvetted migrants allowed into the country during the worst border crisis the U.S. has ever seen, why would an administration set a target goal of EROs at roughly 80% less than prior years if not for virulent reasons.

During a recent local club meeting, after a comment by another elected official, the Tarrant County District Attorney (DA) reconfirmed the disturbing reality that ICE is failing to fulfill the contraction agreement of picking up and deporting criminal aliens under the 287g program. A local official stressed concern about the rising reports of illegal migrants committing crimes across cities that report such criminal offenses in the county.

The 287g program, first added under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, aims to ensure criminals are not “released back into our community without being held fully accountable," according to the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office. However, due to severe staffing shortages felt by every law enforcement agency across Texas, lack of space in the county jail, and ICE's refusal to take custody and remove criminal aliens since 2021, convicted criminals have been released back into the community. 

While most of the 287g county contracts are ongoing despite being on hold, such as in Tarrant County, in Bristol County, Massachusetts, the Biden administration and DHS allegedly violated the Memoranda of Agreement by abruptly ending the contractual agreement. In February, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released the Fiscal Year 2022 report detailing more than 12,500 relevant charges and convictions identified as 287g encounters, of which only 1,486 were placed into removal proceedings at the report's release. 

In a case of pointing the finger, local news attempted to blame Dallas Police Department (DPD) for not reporting the alleged serial murderer Oscar Sanchez Garcia to ICE after a prior domestic violence arrest by the agency. However, as I pointed out in a recent tweet, had DPD reported the alleged criminal to ICE likely would not have taken Garcia into custody, and the result would be the same. 

Unironically, despite such low deportations and enforcement of criminal illegal aliens, the current administration somehow prioritized the removal of a known cartel-affiliated hitman and convicted murderer of 3 innocent people, Nicolas Monarrez, before serving a single day for the crimes. Sadly, this is not the first- or last-time grieving families endure such injustices. Another grim and stark reminder that the federal government and the justice system seemingly continue to fail innocent Americans.