Federal immigration agents have been quietly pulling accused killers off American streets — men wanted for murder, torture, and dismemberment in their home countries — and some of them had been living here for years, in plain sight, largely unchecked.
Over recent months, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has carried out a string of high-profile arrests targeting MS-13 gang members with violent criminal histories abroad, reigniting a fierce debate over how the country classifies — and counts — immigration enforcement arrests. The cases span Connecticut, Virginia, and Maryland, and they share a troubling common thread: each suspect had slipped through the cracks of a system that, critics argue, wasn’t designed to catch them.
A Pastor’s Killer, Walking Connecticut Streets
On March 10, ICE agents arrested Danny Granados-Garcia in Waterbury, Connecticut. He’s a Salvadoran national and alleged MS-13 member wanted in El Salvador for the murder of a pastor. He entered the United States illegally as an unaccompanied minor in 2016 — and was simply released. For nearly a decade, he remained in the country with no U.S. criminal record, which, depending on how you’re keeping score, made him a “non-criminal” in the eyes of some immigration tallies.
That framing infuriated officials. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis didn’t mince words. “Thanks to ICE this MS-13 gang member wanted for murdering a pastor in his home country is off Connecticut streets,” she said, as reported by the Department of Homeland Security. “This is an example of an arrest the media counts as a ‘non-criminal’ because he lacks a rap sheet in the United States. This is an insane categorization.”
It’s a pointed critique — and not an entirely unfair one. A man wanted for killing a religious leader in his home country doesn’t become low-risk simply because he hasn’t been convicted of anything on U.S. soil. Bis added that 70 percent of ICE arrests involve illegal immigrants convicted or charged with a crime in the United States, but her broader argument is that the remaining 30 percent are far from harmless. “Countless ‘non-criminals’ who are public safety threats,” she called them.
Maryland’s Detainer Problem
Then there’s the case that might make your jaw drop a little. Johnny Handy Martinez Bereas, a Honduran national and alleged MS-13 member, had been charged with first-degree murder before Maryland police released him in 2023 — despite an active ICE detainer requesting he be held. He walked out. ICE and the FBI eventually tracked him down and took him back into custody, but the question of why local authorities ignored a federal detainer for a murder suspect remains uncomfortable.
When agents caught up with Martinez Bereas, he wasn’t alone. Alongside him was Denilo Amilkar Escobar, another illegal immigrant facing charges for strangulation, domestic battery, and cocaine possession. Two men, one location, a catalog of alleged violence between them. ICE detailed the joint operation in a release that drew fresh scrutiny toward so-called sanctuary policies that restrict local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
A Gang Leader in Alexandria
Not every arrest involves someone who slipped through bureaucratic cracks. Some are simply a matter of finding the right man in the right place. On October 2, 2025, ICE agents arrested Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores — known by the alias “El Calaco” — in Alexandria, Virginia. He’s described as an MS-13 gang leader wanted in El Salvador for aggravated homicide and illicit associations. U.S. records also show prior charges here for unauthorized use of a vehicle, which, given what he’s accused of abroad, feels almost quaint.
ICE outlined the arrest as part of a broader crackdown on transnational criminal organizations operating within the United States. El Calaco’s case underscores a pattern agents say they encounter frequently: gang leadership that operates across borders, using the U.S. as a staging ground while maintaining ties — and criminal exposure — back home.
Five Murders, One Confession, One Virginia Neighborhood
Perhaps the most viscerally disturbing case in this stretch of enforcement actions involves Edwin Antonio Hernandez Hernandez, a 27-year-old Salvadoran national detained in Virginia. Hernandez, who entered the U.S. illegally near Hidalgo, Texas in 2015, allegedly claimed personal involvement in five murders — including the torture and dismemberment of a rival 18th Street gang member.
He had been living in Virginia. For years. Fox News documented the arrest and the allegations in detail, and while U.S. authorities are careful to note that charges abroad don’t automatically constitute guilt in American courts, the specificity of the alleged confessions gave investigators little reason for comfort.
Still, none of this is simple. Immigration enforcement at this scale raises legitimate questions about due process, the reliability of foreign criminal records, and the risk of conflating gang affiliation with proven guilt. Those debates are real, and they matter. But they exist alongside an equally real set of facts: men accused of brutal violence were living freely in American communities, and in several cases, local systems either didn’t know or didn’t act.
That’s the tension federal officials are betting the public feels — and for now, the arrests keep coming.
As Bis put it, Granados-Garcia is just one example. The implication being: there are more names on the list, more neighborhoods, more men the spreadsheet calls non-criminals — right up until the moment they aren’t.
