An illegal alien, released into the United States from the southern border, has been accused of murdering an 18-year-old girl from El Salvador in Montgomery County, Maryland, a sanctuary county.
Gerber Luis Sanchez Centeno, a 23-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Department last week and charged with first-degree murder.
According to police and the victim’s family, Centeno and 18-year-old Dania Cruz-Mejia had been in a relationship for the last two years before arriving in the United States.
On Sept. 18, police allege that Centeno murdered Cruz-Mejia after the pair got into an argument. Two days later, Centeno was arrested for Cruz-Mejia’s murder. He remains in Montgomery County Jail without bail.
Cruz-Mejia arrived in the U.S. earlier this year. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to Fox News that Centeno crossed the southern border on June 2 and was apprehended by Border Patrol agents near Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
That same day, Centeno was placed into the Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program with a GPS ankle monitor and released into the U.S. from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody. At the time Centeno crossed the border, federal data shows that DHS had thousands of open detention beds available where the agency could have held him in custody.
By early August, Centeno had absconded from the ATD program and DHS terminated his enrollment as a result. DHS, under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, has been increasingly terminating migrants only weeks after they are placed on ATD monitoring.
Two pieces of legislation are sitting in the House and Senate that would address the DHS’s insistence on mass releasing migrants into American communities.
In May, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) introduced the “Reshape ATD Act” to require the DHS to use all available ICE detention space to detain migrants. Only once all detention space is utilized could the DHS place migrants on ATD. Those migrants would then have to be GPS-monitored for the entirety of their court proceedings.
Similarly, Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) has introduced the “Accountability Through Deportation Act” to permit federal immigration judges to order the deportation of migrants who violate the terms of their release from DHS custody.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
