SANCTUARY INSANITY: ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Released by Sanctuary Politicians in California

 

This illegal alien’s criminal history includes convictions for drug trafficking and grand theft

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien who had previously been released by sanctuary politicians in California, despite prior convictions for drug trafficking, grand theft, and other heinous crimes.

On October 19, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Los Angeles arrested Juan Jose Leonardo De Leon, an illegal alien from Guatemala, in Los Angeles, California. His criminal history includes convictions for possession of a controlled substance, possession of controlled substance paraphernalia, possession of controlled substance for sale, and grand theft of stolen copper materials, and arrests for receiving known stolen property and grand theft auto.

ICE had lodged a detainer against De Leon following his arrest by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in January 2026 for the grand theft charge. However, sanctuary politicians in Los Angeles refused to honor the detainer and De Leon was released back onto the streets.

“Sanctuary politicians in California refused to honor ICE’s detainer and released this convicted drug trafficker and thief back onto the streets,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “Thankfully, because of the hard work of the brave patriots of ICE, we’ve arrested this criminal and taken him off the streets. No matter how hard sanctuary politicians try to obstruct us and protect illegal aliens over American citizens, the Trump Administration will always enforce the rule of law, arrest and deport illegal aliens, and save American lives. That’s what it means to put America first.”

De Leon was lawfully admitted to the United States in February 2004. After his authorized period expired in April 2004, he illegally remained in the country.

Under Governor Gavin Newsom, California has become a hotbed of illegal alien crime. Some of the recent illegal alien crimes in the sanctuary state include: 

• In September, ICE lodged a detainer for Chamkaur Singh, an illegal alien from India, after his arrest for causing a semi-truck crash that killed two people in Ontario, California. He had been granted a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) by Gavin Newsom’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  
• In July, ICE lodged a detainer for Gokhan Bagci, an illegal alien from Turkey, after his arrest for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl at a daycare in Sacramento, California.  
• In May, ICE lodged a detainer for Joaquin Escoto Vazquez, an illegal alien from Mexico, after his arrest for fatally stabbing two women and a baby in Modesto, California.  
• In May, ICE lodged a detainer for Manvir Singh, an illegal alien from India, after he was arrested for causing a semi-truck crash that killed two people near Lodi, California.  
• In May, ICE arrested Aman Kumar, an illegal alien from India, who had been released by sanctuary politicians in California after causing a hit-and-run accident that injured a 4-year-old boy in Fresno, California.  
• In May, ICE lodged a detainer for Wilfredo Jose Tortolero-Arriechi, an illegal alien from Venezuela, after he had been arrested for fatally stabbing a social worker in a hospital in San Francisco, California.  
• In April, ICE arrested David Antonio Aviles Perez, an illegal alien from El Salvador and MS-13 member, in San Diego, California, who has an international warrant for aggravated murder and had previously been arrested in California for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft.  
• In February, Governor Newsom pardoned Somboon Phaymany, an illegal alien from Cambodia who had been convicted for attempted murder and assault with a firearm.  
• In January, ICE lodged a detainer for Enrique Bautista Vasquez, an illegal alien from Mexico, after he had been arrested for raping an autistic girl in Cathedral City, California.  
• In December 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Brayan Alva-Rodriguez, an illegal alien from Guatemala, after he had been arrested for causing a drunk driving crash that killed an 8-year-old girl in San Diego, California.  
• In December 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Hector Balderas-Aheelor, an illegal alien from Mexico who had been previously deported FOUR times, after he was arrested for causing a felony hit-and-run accident that killed an 11-year-old boy on Thanksgiving morning.  
• In November 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Humberto Munoz-Gatica, an illegal alien from Mexico, after he was arrested for driving under the influence and hit-and-run following a fatal crash that killed a 71-year-old man in Orange County, California.  
• In October 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Beto Cerillo-Bialva, an illegal alien from Mexico, after he was arrested for murder following a drunk-driving crash that killed six people in Napa County, California.  
• In June 2025, ICE arrested Cuong Chanh Phan, an illegal alien from Vietnam, who had been convicted of second-degree murder for his involvement in a mass shooting in 1994 that killed two teenagers and injured seven others at a graduation party in San Marino, California.  
• In June 2024, Partap Singh, an illegal alien from India, caused a multi-car pileup while driving an 18-wheeler recklessly in San Bernardino, California, after he had been given a CDL by Newsom’s DMV. The crash seriously injured 5-year-old Dalilah Coleman and several others.  

In addition to the crimes committed by illegal aliens in California, Governor Newsom’s sanctuary policies have had disastrous consequences in other states as well. These include: 

• In September, ICE lodged a detainer for Manjit Singh, an illegal alien from India, who was charged with aggravated vehicular homicide after causing a semi-truck crash that killed a woman in Brown County, Ohio. He had been granted a CDL by Newsom’s California  
• In July, ICE lodged a detainer for Axel Eduardo Chavez-Marroquin, an illegal alien from El Salvador, after he was arrested for murdering a veteran in Utah. He had twice been arrested in California for domestic violence – in Santa Ana in 2024, and then in Laguna Niguel in 2025 – but despite ICE lodging detainers against him both times, California sanctuary politicians released him from jail and back into the community.  
• In January, ICE lodged detainers for Gunpreet Singh and Jasveer Singh, criminal illegal aliens from India, after they had been arrested for smuggling more than 300 pounds of cocaine in a semi-truck in Putnam County, Indiana. Governor Newsom’s DMV had given both men CDLs.  
• In December 2025, ICE arrested Gerson Emir Cuadra Soto, an illegal alien from Honduras and MS-13 member who is wanted in his home country for a quadruple homicide, in Grand Island, Nebraska. He had been given a driver’s license by Newsom’s DMV.  
• In November 2025, Rajinder Kumar, an illegal alien from India who had been given a CDL by Newsom’s DMV, jackknifed his semi-truck and trailer on a highway in Deschutes County, Oregon, killing a newlywed couple. ICE arrested Kumar in April 2026.
• In August 2025, ICE lodged a detainer for Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, after he made an illegal U-turn in his semi-truck and killed three people in St. Lucie County, Florida. Singh had obtained his CDL in Newsom’s California.