National Defense

Honduran Man Granted Asylum In US Accused Of Two Stabbings, One Fatal, In Two States

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A Honduran national who was granted asylum in the U.S. was arrested Saturday for allegedly fatally stabbing an individual in New York state, after he had already been arrested for an alleged stabbing incident in Maryland, Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said during a press conference Wednesday.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that Carlos E. Corrales-Ramirez, the alleged perpetrator, who is now 20, initially entered the U.S. illegally in 2014 and was subsequently granted asylum in 2020.

On Sept. 3, police officers in Troy, New York, arrested Corrales-Ramirez as a suspect in the killing of Jario J. Hernandez-Sanchez in Troy, New York, according to the Troy Police Department. Border Patrol and New York State Police had previously arrested Corrales-Ramirez in March and then they found that he was wanted for a February “assault with a knife in Maryland.”

Corrales-Ramirez was arrested in March based on the suspicion that he was in the country illegally because he couldn’t provide identification, McLaughlin said Wednesday.

“I’m only going off of what Border Patrol said, I’m only going off what they said back in March that he was here illegally. But then as of today, I don’t know if the story’s changing or if they’re catching up, but now it’s he was granted asylum status. So, that’s what they’re saying. So they also said they can’t deport him unless he’d been convicted, which is why it was so key that he get sent back to Maryland for trial,” McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin later confirmed to the DCNF that federal law enforcement sources confirmed to him that Corralez-Ramirez had been granted asylum in the U.S.

A March 18 tweet by Robert Garcia, the Chief Border Patrol Agent for the Swanton Sector, stated: “On Thursday, Border Patrol Agents and the New York State Police encountered a citizen of Honduras illegally present in the U.S. near Champlain, NY, who is wanted for assault with a knife in Maryland. He will be extradited for criminal proceedings.”

Corrales-Ramirez faced extradition to Maryland at the time of his March arrest, but Maryland authorities didn’t follow through with the extradition, leading to his release from custody in New York after he was held for the 90 days pursuant to extradition laws, Rensselaer District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly said at Wednesday’s press conference. McLaughlin blamed his release on a “communication breakdown” and “bail reform.”

“So, at some point during the ninety days, it came to an end and obviously the magistrate released him after 90 days. Well, at some point there’s an email trail that says either ‘we’re not coming to get him,’ which is in itself unbelievable, or they stopped communication, which is unbelievable. It cannot be otherwise because if they were in fact communicating, and I gotta assume that if we had an active warrant and we were not just sitting on it,” McLaughin said.

“At that point, they may have had no other choice, but to release him,” McLaughlin added.

Donnelly said that the plan is “absolutely not ” to let him go to Maryland for prosecution, but rather to keep him Rensselaer County.

“This arrest is clear proof the open borders and sanctuary cities policies are failures, and the inability by Biden and Hochul to deal with the illegal migrant issue are placing our safety and quality of life in jeopardy,” McLaughlin said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The failures of Biden and Hochul are putting so many at risk. We will get answers as to how this massive failure occurred and how this man was out on the streets and able to allegedly kill another man,” McLaughlin added.

Federal border authorities have seen a spike in illegal immigration at both the southern and northern borders in recent years. Border Patrol recorded more than 2.2  million illegal migrant encounters in all of fiscal year 2022 nationwide and roughly 1.6 million in the first ten months of fiscal year 2023, according to federal data.

ICE, which is responsible for immigration enforcement in the interior of the country, said they had no record of ICE encounters with Corrales-Ramirez, referring the DCNF to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which declined to comment.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) also referred the DCNF to the New York State Police, to whose custody the agency said they released Corrales-Ramirez to after his March arrest, and to the Laurel, Maryland Police Department. The New York State Police said that they processed Corrales-Ramirez in March of 2023. He was arraigned in Town of Champlain Court and remanded to Clinton County Jail pending extradition.

The Laurel, Maryland Police Department referred the DCNF to the Prince George’s County Attorney’s Office, which initially told the DCNF that Border Patrol had released Corrales-Ramirez before the extradition could be served. The attorney’s office had not yet responded to follow-up questions from DCNF by the time of publication.