Illegal Immigrant Deported 7 Times Arrested For Murder, Authorities Say

An illegal immigrant who had been deported over a half-dozen times was charged with murder in Butler County, Ohio, according to local reports.

Hamilton Police arrested 48-year-old Fermin Garcia-Gutierrez on unrelated charges on March 16, the Journal-News, an Ohio-based newspaper, reported. Authorities highlighted Garcia-Gutierrez’s record of seven deportations in a Friday press conference prior to the discovery of the murder, according to the Journal-News.

“It just so happens we ran into him and had an encounter with him,” Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit told the Journal-News Wednesday. “Unbeknownst to us, he had committed this murder.”

Police received a 911 call Monday about the killing and interviewed Garcia-Gutierrez Tuesday, the Post-Journal reported. He was charged with aggravated murder, which can result in the death penalty, according to Cincinnati-based outlet WCPO.

Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones blasted President Joe Biden over the situation on the border in the Friday press conference, saying that 999 illegal immigrants had been housed in the county jail at a cost of over $1.8 million, according to the Journal-News.

Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have highlighted crimes committed by illegal immigrants after the murder of nursing student Laken Riley. Riley’s alleged killer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, an immigrant from Venezuela who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, was arrested by University of Georgia police and charged with murdering the 22-year-old nursing student on Feb. 23.

According to data released by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 849,469 illegal immigrants have been encountered to date in fiscal year 2024, following 2,045,838 encounters in fiscal year 2023, 2,206,436 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,659,206 in fiscal year 2021.