Venezuelan Men Accused Of Killing Mexican Immigration…

Venezuelan Men Accused Of Killing Mexican Immigration Agent

A Webb County Sheriffs Officer and US Border Patrol arrest a man smuggling migrants in a vehicle on October 12, 2022 in Laredo, Texas. (Credit: ALLISON DINNER/Getty Images)

Two Venezuelan men have been accused of attacking and killing an immigration agent in the border state of Chihuahua, Mexico's National Immigration Institute (INM) said.

The incident happened Monday around 12:30 p.m. at a checkpoint in Samalayuca, about 25 miles south of Juarez. Officials stated that the agent had asked the migrants for identification before the attack occurred, Border Report reported.

While the INM did not share specific details, Chihuahua State Police reported that emergency responders found the agent dead, with a head injury and other signs of violence.

The INM reported that local, state and federal authorities arrested three men about three hours after the attack. However, the Chihuahua State Police stated that only two men were arrested. The suspects have been identified as Carlos A. S., 36, and David José V., 29, both from Venezuela.

The state police also released photos of the arrests. The deceased agent was identified as Luis Alberto Olivas, a 30-year veteran of the INM.

This news emerged just a day before Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, co-director of the Sidewalk School for Children Asylum Seekers, a nonprofit that operates schools for young asylum seekers south of the border, shared an incident involving a migrant family she encountered in Matamoros, wandering with their luggage in search of a migrant camp that Mexican authorities had dismantled.

Last week, U.S. Border Patrol agents found 22 migrants living in a house in El Paso. In a social media post, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said that the migrants were found on Dec. 16 in what he described as a "stash house."

While the conditions were described as "poor," all the migrants were healthy. Mexican officials said the migrants are rarely given food or water.

In August, police in Mexico's Chihuahua City said they had rescued 1,245 migrants from criminal gangs over the past seven months. Abducted migrants are usually held in cramped stash houses, mostly in Juarez near the U.S. border with El Paso, Texas.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly planning to remove a long-standing policy that stops Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting undocumented individuals from sensitive places like churches, schools, hospitals, and events like funerals, weddings and public protests.

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