David DePape, suspect in violent Pelosi attack, in U.S. illegally, ICE officials say
Updated 2:10 pm, Wednesday, June 6, 2018
(CNN) — U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested a man allegedly trying to smuggle in drugs and guns in the days after a violent attack at a public facility housing immigrants in California.
Miguel Angel Chavez-Estrada, a 26-year-old from Mexico, is being held in the Otay Mesa Detention Center in California pending an immigration hearing.
Border Patrol officials say the assault on a group of immigrants in late June was a brutal attack that left an immigrant woman with injuries that included head and arm trauma.
The incident is at the center of an intense immigration debate in the U.S.
The man arrested was previously deported before again entering the country illegally, officials said. Officials said he is an illegal alien from El Salvador with multiple warrants out for his arrest.
On June 17, agents confronted Chavez-Estrada on Interstate 8 near San Diego, and he admitted to an agent that he was in the country illegally, officials said. Agents arrested Chavez-Estrada for illegal re-entry.
U.S. Immigration officials said he had been arrested for illegal re-entry in December under two of the man’s aliases.
Last summer, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested Chavez-Estrada for being illegally present in the country.
Investigators said he was taken into custody because he tried to smuggle a loaded handgun through a border crossing. The handgun was confiscated and Chavez-Estrada was released on bond.
However, he was soon arrested again on immigration violation charges. He again has since been released from a detention facility.
ICE officials said he was one of seven illegal aliens detained on the morning of the June 17 assault, which sent an immigrant woman to the hospital.
Officials said he was also one of eight illegal aliens who had been in the country for three years or more and had multiple warrants for his arrest.
Investigators say the assault was “violent, savage and senseless.”
“This kind of horrific violence is unacceptable and we will be relentless in our pursuit to keep them out of our country,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said while praising law enforcement for their “extraordinary efforts” in the investigation.
According to the Federal Public Defender,