Lawmakers Ask How Suspected MS-13 Members Charged in Massachusetts Murder Entered U.S.

WASHINGTON – The murder of a 19-year-old in Massachusetts by at least two teens with suspected ties to the MS-13 gang has prompted questions about how the suspects entered the country. Seventeen-year-olds Jose Vasquez Ardon and Cristian Nunez-Flores are charged with the murder.  According to media reports, Nunez-Flores is originally from El Salvador, where his parents remain; raising questions about how the teens were able to enter and remain in the United States.  Authorities are still searching for a third suspect in the crime.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte are seeking details on the teens’ immigration and criminal histories, as well as whether immigration authorities had any knowledge of the alleged gang ties.  The lawmakers are also asking if immigration authorities requested cooperation from state or local law enforcement and what action immigration authorities will take if the request is not honored.

Grassley and Goodlatte’s questions follow reports that criminal networks based in Central America are using lax border enforcement and recent surges of unaccompanied minors crossing the Southern border to establish and broaden operations in the United States. 

Below is text of Grassley and Goodlatte’s letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. A copy of the letter is available here. 

February 9, 2016

The Honorable Sylvia Burwell
Secretary
Department of Health and Human Services
Washington, DC 20201

The Honorable Jeh Johnson
Secretary 
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

Dear Secretary Burwell and Secretary Johnson:

On January 2, 2016, Omar Wilfredo Reyes was murdered on a bicycle path in Malden, Massachusetts.  Two teenagers and suspected MS-13 gang members, Jose Vasquez Ardon and Cristian Nunez-Flores, have been arrested and charged with Reyes’ murder.  Authorities are still searching for a third suspect.  Reyes was allegedly lured away from his girlfriend by Ardon on the night of the murder.  Surveillance cameras show Reyes walking with the three suspects to the bicycle path.  These same cameras later show the three suspects leaving without Reyes.  Reyes was found after midnight by police with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.

News reports give the impression, but do not clarify, that Jose Vasquez Ardon and Cristian Nunez-Flores are both unaccompanied alien minors.  One report notes that Nunez-Flores’ parents are still in his home country of El Salvador.  If these suspects were in fact unaccompanied alien minors, this would be yet another example of the Administration wantonly creating a public safety threat by  releasing minors that were members of one of the nation’s most violent Central American gangs into the community.  Such reckless behavior has already resulted in multiple homicides and other crimes of violence by these criminal street gangs and put the public into serious danger.

For a more thorough understanding of the incidents surrounding the shooting, please provide the following information not later than February 26:

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