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Illegal Immigrant Charged With Beheading Woman Was Previously Targeted For Deportation

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Kaylee Greenlee Immigration and Extremism Reporter
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An illegal immigrant charged with beheading a woman has an extensive criminal history and was previously targeted for removal, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday.

Alexi Saborit-Viltres, 42, allegedly beheaded America Mafalda Thayer, 55, with a machete while in a car at a residential intersection where several people witnessed the July 28 incident, local outlet Fox 9 reported last week.

Saborit-Viltres illegally entered the U.S. through Texas in 2007 and two years later a New Orleans, Louisiana, judge ordered him removed from the U.S. after he didn’t show up for court, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official told the DCNF.

ICE previously attempted to remove Saborit-Viltres to his home country of Cuba, though the agency couldn’t get the necessary travel documents from Cuba for his removal and released him under an order of supervision in 2012.

“Saborit-Viltres is a citizen of Cuba who is unlawfully present in the United States,” ICE spokesperson Shawn Neudauer told the DCNF on Thursday. “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not placed a detainer on Saborit-Vilres following his recent arrest for second-degree murder in Shakopee, Minnesota.”

ICE hasn’t placed a new detainer on Saborit-Viltres because the agency can only hold him for around six months before they’re required to release him, unless officials can show Saborit-Viltres will harm someone immediately after he’s freed from custody, according to an ICE official. His order of supervision requires him to periodically check in with the nearest ICE office and to notify the agency of where he is living.

Saborit-Viltres was arrested in Louisiana and convicted of two charges of domestic assault and one count of false imprisonment making him a felon, according to ICE’s records. (RELATED: Biden’s Pick To Lead ICE Didn’t Like Reporting Illegal Immigrants To Feds)

“Saborit-Viltres’s criminal history includes multiple convictions in Minnesota and Louisiana for domestic assault/abuse/battery, DUI and fleeing a police officer,” Neudauer said. “He has pending charges for first-degree arson-dwelling, first-degree criminal damage to property, and obstruct legal process-interfere with peace officer stemming from a 2020 arrest in Scott County, Minnesota; he also has pending charges for murder, second degree (2021) based on his recent local arrest, also in Scott County.”

He asked the court to reopen his immigration case in 2012 and officials upheld the first judge’s removal orders, according to ICE.

ICE records show Saborit-Viltres was arrested and convicted of domestic assault in a Minneapolis suburb in 2017 and given four months probation. A month later he was convicted of a DUI in another suburban area and given 37 days probation.

He was convicted of obstructing the legal process and fleeing from police on foot, despite these being felony charges in Minnesota, he was issued one-day probation in May 2019, according to ICE.

In November 2020, Saborit-Viltres was arrested for arson, criminal damage to property and again obstruction of the legal process, an ICE official told the DCNF. The charges are pending and he was supposed to attend a felony court hearing on July 28 when he allegedly murdered Thayer.

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