A boyish-faced Honduran man who was allowed to stay in the United States after claiming he was underage when he crossed the border illegally has been charged with the brutal murder of a Florida man who took him into his home.
Yery Noel Medina Ulloa, 24, was arrested October 7 after he was found covered in blood following the slaughter of Javier Cuellar, a father of four.
A trail of blood led police back to the victim's home. Ulloa was initially put in a juvenile detention facility until his real identity and age was discovered on October 13.
Cueller, 46, had taken the suspect into his home after Ulloa tricked immigration officials with his story that he was only 17 and gave them an alias of Reynel Alexander Hernandez.
The arrest comes as immigration arrests have hit a 10-year low under President Joe Biden, who has faced criticism for a proposal that would pay $450,000 per person - and up to $1million per family - to those separated at the southern border after illegally crossing.
Yery Noel Medina Ulloa (pictured above), 24, was arrested October 7 when police in Jacksonville found him covered in blood after he allegedly killed Javier Cuellar
The arrest comes as immigration arrests have hit a 10-year low under President Joe Biden
Biden has faced criticism for a proposal that would pay $450,000 per person - and up to $1million per family - to those were separated at the southern border after illegally crossing
Ulloa wasn't turned away when he crossed the border but instead placed in a shelter, as per Biden administration policy.
He was given a 'Notice to Appear' and released. Eventually, Cuellar took Ulloa to his Jacksonville home.
Ulloa's mother was interviewed by Univision and said her son told her about his change in identity.
'When he entered [the US] he told me, 'Mommy, I didn't go in with my name,'' Wendy Florencia Ulloa said. 'I went in with the name of another person because right there at the shelter they helped me.'
She said that her son told her that he was quite fond of Cuellar.
'Mommy, he is my Uncle Frank,' his mother said. 'I live with him. But don't worry. He treats me like a son.''
According to an arrest report, a witness told the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office that he received a call from Ulloa saying he 'killed Uncle Francisco' because he 'hit him.'
The arrest report said the murder was also caught on camera. Police said cameras facing the living room of the home show 'the suspect stabbing the victim numerous times and repeatedly hitting him with a chair.'
JSO also recovered a knife in a wooded area that appeared to be covered in blood.
It has not been made clear how Ulloa got to Florida from the Texas border, though a recent report that said the Biden administration was making 'secret flights' to resettle immigrants included routes from Texas to Jacksonville.
The victim's daughter, 18-year-old Maycarman Cuellar, didn't know much about Ulloa but said she believes he was on one of those flights.
'My dad told me one day he was going to the airport, and then this guy came out of nowhere and was at work the next day,' she told the New York Post. 'I didn't really ask questions.'
Cuellar put Ulloa to work at a store his family ran.
'My dad seemed like he was doing a favor for somebody because where [Ulloa] came from they are super poor,' she said in a phone interview.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hit out at the Biden administration over the murder, saying 'if not for the Biden Administration's unlawful 'catch and release' policy, Mr. Cuellar would still be alive today'
She then alleged that someone 'asked' her father to take in Ulloa, saying that her father was 'compassionate.'
'We feel that someone asked my dad to do it,' she said. 'My dad was really compassionate like that, he would help someone who needed it.'
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit out again at the Biden administration in the wake of Cuellar's murder.
'This horrific crime is the latest example of how unfettered illegal migration costs Floridians' lives,' a DeSantis' spokesperson said. 'If not for the Biden Administration's unlawful 'catch and release' policy, Mr. Cuellar would still be alive today.'
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has criticized President Biden's plans to consider paying $450,000 per person - and up to $1million per family - to those were separated at the southern border having crossed into the United States illegally.
The lump sums have been put forward as a way for the U.S. Justice Department to settle lawsuits with migrants who say the policy caused them lasting psychological damage.
But DeSantis, a Trump loyalist, has said he is 'very, very concerned' about the payments declaring them to be a 'slap in the face' with Americans themselves already struggling to make ends meet as inflation boosts the cost of living.
Immigration arrests inside the United States fell during the past year to their lowest number in more than a decade, it emerged last week, according to new data from U.S. Immigration and Enforcement.
Almost 72,000 arrests were made in fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, a drop of almost one third since 2020 when 104,000 arrests made, the Washington Post reported.
The details will raise fresh concerns among conservatives that the Biden administration is not doing enough to tackle illegal immigration.
Chad Wolf, who led the Department of Homeland Security under President Trump, said: 'This is what abolishing ICE looks like.
'Disaster in the middle of a crisis.'
The new data come hot on the heels of a string of other negative indicators and as a fresh caravan of about 3,000 migrants makes its way through Mexico.
The number of arrests by ICE's Enforcement and Removal directorate plunged this year
Migrants, mostly from Central America, on their way to the southern U.S. border take cover from the rain upon their arrival to Huixtla, Chiapas state in Mexico, on Monday, Oct. 25, 2021
President Biden's Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas has directed ICE enforcement agents to focus on illegal immigrants who pose a national security risk and has ordered a halt to mass raids on workplaces where undocumented immigrants are employed
Republicans, including Trump's former head of Homeland Security, condemned the latest numbers and said Biden was not doing enough to enforce the law
The Washington Post reported that the number of arrests made by ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations was down from an average of 148,000 a year from 2017 to 2019 - and far less than the 322,093 made in 2011, a peak year for activity.
It meant that the 6,000 enforcement officers made an average of 12 arrests each during the year ending Sept. 30, or one a month.
The newspaper said ICE arrests began to fall under President Biden after the imposition of new limits on immigration enforcement and a 100-day pause on most deportations.
Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Majorkas unveiled a new directive for ICE, telling officers they should prioritize removal of anyone deemed a danger to national security.
'The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them,' he wrote in a memo.
'We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way. Justice and our country's well-being require it.'
And this month he directed agents to stop the practise of mass raids on workplaces where undocumented immigrants are employed.
Republicans on the House Homeland Security Committee condemned the latest numbers.
'President Biden and his administration refuse to enforce the laws on our nation's books,' they tweeted.
'In a year of record-breaking encounters at the southern border, more criminals are being ushered into communities across the country by PresIdent Biden.'
A spokeswoman for ICE said the agency was reviewing its latest statistics.
'[T]hese numbers will be shared publicly when the review is complete,' said Paige Hughes.
'Data integrity is of the utmost importance to the agency and ICE's vetted statistics powerfully demonstrate the effectiveness of our current approach of prioritizing national security, border security, and public safety.'
Republicans have repeatedly hit Biden for what they say are exploding numbers crossing the southern border illegally.
And he has faced growing questions about when or if he will visit, amid plunging poll numbers.
Meanwhile, Texas is bracing itself for the arrival of about 3000 people moving through Mexico on their way to the southern border.
Organizers had initially said that the group, called 'Madre Caravana' or 'Mother Caravan,' would be formed by tens of thousands of migrants, according to BorderReport.com.
But now, about 3,000 migrants, including some 250 children, stopped along a highway in Huehuetán, a city in the southern state of Chiapas, on Monday, as the weather topped 89 degrees but really felt like 99 due to the humidity
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