DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Federal immigration authorities confirmed that an MS-13 gang member charged in a shooting spree in Mississippi last week is an illegal migrant who had been previously deported from the U.S.
Fredy Antonio Amaya-Marin is a 39-year-old Salvadoran national living in the U.S. illegally, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation on Thursday.
The Philadelphia, Mississippi, Police Department arrested Amaya-Marin on Aug. 24 for allegedly shooting at about 15 vehicles and charged him with attempted murder.
Multiple shootings targeting vehicles passing through a road in Philadelphia, Mississippi, occurred over the course of several days last week, according to WLBT-TV, Channel 3, the NBC affiliate in Jackson, Mississippi. Authorities eventually apprehended a man who identified himself as Jonathan Salvador, who allegedly fired at passing cars on Friday near his home with no discernible motive.
After administering a biometric screening, authorities determined this man to be Amaya-Marin, and discovered he had been deported from the country before unlawfully returning, according to ICE.
Border Patrol agents first encountered Amaya-Marin on July 2, 2007, near Hebbronville, Texas, after he unlawfully crossed into the country, according to ICE. He was placed into the agency’s custody and removed by Enforcement and Removal Operations several days later.
The Salvadoran national again illegally entered the country at some point after his 2007 deportation, but federal immigration authorities are unsure when or where, according to ICE.
Local police determined that Amaya-Marin is a member of MS-13, an international criminal gang that originated in Los Angeles but primarily comprises Salvadoran nationals, according to WLBT-TV. Gang members are known for their violence and brutality, with one MS-13 leader pleading guilty last month to charges related to the gruesome killings of high school girls with baseball bats and a machete.
Police say they have yet to determine a motive for the shootings, but the Salvadoran’s roommates say he started acting strange a couple of months ago.
“They stated to us that during the day, he was fine, and when nightfall came, he was just a totally different person,” Philadelphia, Mississippi, police Capt. Desmond Jones told local media. “And it kind of made them uneasy, and they were kind of feeling suspicious about it.”
ICE confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that a detainer request has been lodged with the Winston-Choctaw County Jail, where Amaya-Marin is being held. Immigration detainers ask that local authorities hold onto a noncitizen in their custody long enough for a deportation officer to arrive and assume custody of that individual.
The Salvadoran national is charged with attempted murder, illegal reentry after deportation, and being an illegal migrant in possession of a firearm, according to WLBT-TV.
The incident makes Amaya-Marin one of the countless “unknown got-aways” who enter the U.S. illegally and undetected by federal immigration authorities. Roughly 2 million known got-aways have entered the country since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, a congressional source confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation earlier this year.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation