Illegal Immigrants Charged In Multiple Michigan Smash-And-Grab Operations

Four men who were charged with committing multiple smash-and-grab robberies at a mall in Troy, Michigan, were in the United States illegally, The Oakland Press reported.

Hernan Parraquez-Mondaca, Sandrino Rojas-Palma, Michael Aguilar-Mondaca and Nicholas Caceres-Henriquez, were all charged in August after the group allegedly broke into an MJ Diamonds store at the mall, smashed the display cases with hammers, pepper sprayed multiple employees and ran out with handfuls of jewelry, ABC7 WXYZ Detroit reported. After the men were arrested, officers discovered that all four were Chilean immigrants who had outstayed their visas, and Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) promptly filed immigration detainers on the group, according to the Oakland Press.

“As part of its mission to identify and arrest removable noncitizens, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations lodges immigration detainers against noncitizens who have been arrested for criminal activity and taken into custody by state or local law enforcement,” the agency told Oakland. “An immigration detainer is a request from ICE to state or local law enforcement agencies to notify ICE as early as possible before a removable noncitizen is released from their custody. Detainers request that state or local law enforcement agencies maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released, allowing ERO to assume custody for removal purposes in accordance with federal law.”

All four men will face trial in late October or early November, the Oakland Press reported. If convicted, the men could face the maximum penalty of life in prison for committing an armed robbery.

Illegal immigration across the border has surged in 2023, with Border Patrol logging 1.8 million encounters between October 2022 and August. A federal watchdog discovered in September that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no way of keeping track of all illegal immigrants once they are released into the United States.

DHS estimated that there were roughly 853,955 immigrants overstaying their visa in the U.S. in fiscal year 2022, according to a study released by the agency.

ICE did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.