EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Begging Sanctuary Leaders Not To Release Illegal Migrant Accused Of Two Murders

Trump White House Archives/Creative Commons/Flickr

Federal immigration authorities are seeking custody of an illegal migrant allowed into the country under the Biden administration and now accused of two separate murders.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer for Angelvis Jesus Quintero Fernandez in Charlotte, North Carolina, a sanctuary haven long known for refusing cooperation with immigration agents, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. Quintero Fernandez, a 22-year-old Venezuelan national, is accused of gunning down two people just months apart in Mecklenburg County.

“Because of the Biden administration’s disastrous CBP One app, this illegal alien was allowed to come into the country and commit these murders,” Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement provided to the DCNF. “We are calling on Charlotte sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer from jail back into our communities.”

“We need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions to make America safe again,” Bis continued. “No one wants this murderer in their communities.”

Angelvis Jesus Quintero Fernandez. Image courtesy of DHS.

Upon responding to an assault with a deadly weapon call on March 22, law enforcement officers discovered a victim with life-threatening injuries sustained from a gunshot wound, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD). The victim was transported to a local hospital but died from his injuries on March 24.

The ongoing investigation led law enforcement to Quintero Fernandez, who was already in Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office custody, according to the CMPD. Bullet casings found at the crime scene connected the Venezuelan man to another murder that took place in January, just a couple of miles away from the March 22 incident.

The Venezuelan national has since confessed to both murders and is currently being held in the Mecklenburg County jail, according to local reports. DHS confirmed he faces first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflicting serious injury, possession of a stolen firearm and felony conspiracy charges.

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office, which runs the county jail, has long had a fraught relationship with federal immigration authorities.

As soon as he was sworn into office in December 2018, Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden began refusing ICE detainers and repeatedly released criminal illegal migrants back into the community, ICE charged at the time. Highlighting the seriousness of the issue, the agency in August 2019 released a list of the numerous criminal illegal migrants McFadden released from county custody.

The sheriff, who is facing misconduct allegations, also attracted national scrutiny for public statements he made about the killings of Charlie Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian woman who was fatally stabbed in a subway train in Mecklenburg County in 2025. In December, the sheriff had suggested it’s the judges who are victimized for their rulings following such high-profile crimes.

Quintero Fernandez first entered the U.S. in July 2023 via the CBP One app, DHS confirmed to the DCNF. The Biden-era app, which had allowed over a million foreign nationals into the U.S, was immediately discontinued when President Donald Trump re-entered the White House, and has since been repurposed into an app that helps illegal migrants voluntarily leave the country.

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.