How loopy is the USA immigration enforcement system? An El Salvadoran man alleged to be a member of the Surenos gang dwelling in Los Angeles who was convicted of homicide and different violent crimes is being protected against deportation by the Trump administration due to a December 2024 Biden Division of Justice ruling defending the killer from being despatched again to El Salvador over fears of torture, and a 2025 nationwide injunction by a federal choose delaying deputations to 3rd get together nations.
Fox Information reporter Invoice Melugin filed a stunning report after doing a ride-along with Homeland Safety brokers once they went to arrest Alexander Alfredo Palacios Guevara on a deportation order.
Guevara didn’t resist arrest. He shocked unaware brokers and Melugin when he advised them as he was being led into an ICE detention heart, “I’ve CAT, I’ve CAT,” shorthand for DCAT, Deferral of Elimination underneath the Conference Towards Torture safety from deportation.
Guevara defined, “I simply obtained CAT on December the 18th of final yr by the BIA. You may name my lawyer.”
Requested by Melugin if he was a convicted assassin, Guevara responded, “I’m free.”
ICE confirmed Guevara’s protected standing and launched him later that day, solely to go choose him up the next day. He stays in custody as a menace to public security whereas the Trump administration works on deporting him.
DHS assertion given to Fox:
“This legal alien ought to by no means have been roaming the streets of Los Angeles. Not solely is he a member of the ruthless Surenos gang, however he additionally has a number of convictions for homicide, assault and rape or sexual abuse of a minor. A extremely uncommon Biden-era authorized choice from December allowed this harmful legal to stay in American communities. Because of the management of President Trump and Secretary Noem, we’re eradicating public security threats because it all the time ought to have been.”
Melugin confirmed Guevara was granted DCAT standing by BIA, the Bureau of Immigration Appeals, on December 18, 2024.
The BIA is a part of the Justice Division. As such the DCAT order might be overruled by Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi or a federal choose in accordance with the BIA page at the DOJ:
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is the very best administrative physique for deciphering and making use of immigration legal guidelines. The BIA is situated at EOIR headquarters in Falls Church, Virginia. Typically, the BIA doesn’t conduct courtroom proceedings – it decides appeals by conducting a “paper evaluate” of circumstances. On uncommon events, nonetheless, the BIA hears oral arguments of appealed circumstances, predominately at headquarters.
The BIA has been given nationwide jurisdiction to listen to appeals from sure selections rendered by Immigration Judges and by district administrators of the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) in all kinds of proceedings through which the Authorities of the USA is one get together and the opposite get together is an alien, a citizen, or a enterprise agency.
BIA selections are binding on all DHS officers and Immigration Judges except modified or overruled by the Legal professional Basic or a federal court docket. Most BIA selections are topic to judicial evaluate within the federal courts. The vast majority of appeals reaching the BIA contain orders of elimination and purposes for reduction from elimination. Different circumstances earlier than the BIA embrace the exclusion of aliens making use of for admission to the USA, petitions to categorise the standing of alien family for the issuance of choice immigrant visas, fines imposed upon carriers for the violation of immigration legal guidelines, and motions for reopening and reconsideration of selections beforehand rendered.
The BIA is directed to train its unbiased judgment in listening to appeals for the Legal professional Basic. BIA selections designated for publication are printed in sure volumes entitled Administrative Choices Below Immigration and Nationality Legal guidelines of the USA.
Video report posted by Melugin:
EXCLUSIVE: We have been with ICE & HSI Los Angeles as they arrested a Salvadoran alien w/ an energetic deportation order who has convictions for homicide & tried homicide in LA County, however ICE could not be capable of deport him as a result of a safety he obtained within the ultimate days of the Biden admin.… pic.twitter.com/dpVJaINUBP
— Invoice Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 19, 2025
