President Joe Biden’s White House is ignoring the illegal alien status and deportation history of a fugitive suspect accused of murdering five people, including a 9-year-old boy, in Cleveland, Texas, last week.
Law enforcement is on the hunt for 38-year-old illegal alien Francisco Oropesa Perez-Torres of Mexico after he allegedly shot and killed a family of five.
He has been deported from the United States four times.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was briefed on the shooting, but she said nothing about Oropesa’s history as a four-time deported illegal alien.
“On Friday evening, a nine-year-old child was murdered along with four others in yet another shocking, horrific act of gun violence in America, this time in Cleveland, Texas,” Jean-Pierre said. “Two of the women killed were discovered on top of surviving children and appeared to be shielding them form gunfire. All five people were murdered by an individual armed with a powerful AR-15-style rifle.
Instead, Jean-Pierre said the shooting shows the need “to take these weapons of war off our streets,” with no mention of how proper enforcement of immigration law could have prevented the shooting.
“The president was briefed on the shooting on Saturday morning and he and the first lady are praying for those killed in the attack, for their surviving loved ones, and for the broader Cleveland community,” she said.
She continued:
But the president believes prayers alone are not enough. Congress must act because what makes tragedies like this one all the more heart-wrenching is the fact that it is entirely within our power to take these weapons of war off our streets. … It’s not too late to save lives and prevent the next mass shooting. [Emphasis added]
The White House’s ignoring Oporesa’s illegal alien status comes as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has also refused to comment, as Breitbart News noted.
“I won’t comment on it because it is an active case. The tragedy that occurred is … just absolutely horrific … we’ll deliver accountability,” Mayorkas told Meet the Press over the weekend.
Likewise, establishment media outlets like the Washington Post, NBC News, the New York Times, and CBS have all run cover for Oropesa’s illegal alien status. The Post, for instance, labeled him a “Texas man.”
Oropesa is accused of shooting to death his neighbors, a Honduran family: 31-year-old Julisa Molina Rivera, 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzman, 21-year-old Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 18-year-old Jose Jonathan Casarez, and nine-year-old Daniel Enrique Laso.
As Breitbart News reported, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency has confirmed that Oropesa has been deported on four separate occasions from the United States.
Though Oropesa was reportedly carrying a consular card issued by the Mexican government, the card does not confer any immigration status in the United States. His lengthy deportation history suggests he illegally resided in the United States.
Oropesa was first ordered deported from the United States by a federal immigration judge in March 2009. He was quickly deported that month but crossed the border illegally and was deported again in September 2009. Then in January 2012 and July 2016 Oropesa was also deported.
In January 2012, he was convicted in Montgomery County, Texas, for drunk driving and given a prison sentence.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Houston office has said they have “zero leads” as to Oropesa’s whereabouts. The agency considers him armed and dangerous.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.