U.S. Capitol Police detained a man carrying a brick, a butcher’s knife and a machete and then turned him over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after learning that he was an illegal alien who had already been detained and released by federal officials at least once.
Deportation officers from the D.C. office of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations team took custody of Jose Leonardo Marquez-Marquez, 23, after he had been arrested the previous day by Capitol Police, according to a statement from ICE.
Marquez-Marquez, 23, entered the country illegally on an unknown date, according to the statement. He is a Venezuelan national.
The U.S. Border Patrol had released Marquez-Marquez on Aug. 22, 2022, after he had been arrested the previous day near El Paso, Texas.
According to ICE, he couldn’t be held longer than that because there was no available space to detain him.
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On Oct. 5 — well over a year later — Marquez-Marquez reported to ERO Washington, D.C., where he was ordered to appear before an immigration judge. Before that could happen, however, he was arrested by Capitol Police on Dec. 26 and then transferred back into the custody of ERO.
“Jose Leonardo Marquez-Marquez posed a significant threat to people in and around the U.S. Capitol,” ERO Washington, D.C., acting Field Office Director Patrick Divver said in the statement. “Thanks to our law enforcement partners at the U.S. Capitol Police, this threat was mitigated quickly. Fortunately, Marquez is currently in ERO custody and will face removal proceedings.”
“This is another example of the vigilance and strong intuition of our USCP officers,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a separate statement. “I am proud of our cops who routinely work to keep everyone around the U.S Capitol safe.”
Those statements are both true, so far as they go, and we should certainly be grateful for the efforts of law enforcement officers to uphold the law and keep our citizens safe.
Should more illegal immigrants be deported?
That said, however, this situation would likely never have occurred in the first place had the Biden administration — or, frankly, the administrations of former presidents from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump — upheld its constitutional duty to protect the U.S. borders.
According to reporting from the New York Post last April, the wait time in New York City for immigrants to get before a judge was closing in on a full decade, with another four years of proceedings likely to follow. That means that a man crossing the border at age 18 might not know the final disposition of his immigration case until his 32nd birthday.
That, to put it lightly, is ridiculous.
It’s not fair to American citizens who foot the bill for all of this processing — not to mention government benefits for many illegals — but it’s even less fair to those immigrants who have legitimate claims for asylum that may not be resolved for 14 years or more.
And while adding personnel to help process illegal aliens through a backlogged system might help a little (at the cost of a larger federal government and increased federal spending), it’s patently obvious to any thinking human that delays like that can only be mitigated in the long run by addressing the issue at its source — i.e., by closing the border.
You can read the media release from the U.S. Capitol Police in its entirety below.
Yesterday afternoon, United States Capitol Police (USCP) officers arrested a man who was carrying a machete and a knife on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol.
“This is another example of the vigilance and strong intuition of our USCP officers,” said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger. “I am proud of our cops who routinely work to keep everyone around the U.S Capitol safe.”
On Tuesday, at approximately 4:15 p.m., a USCP officer saw a man pacing back and forth, then sit down on a ledge on the east side of U.S. Capitol. After witnessing the man’s strange behavior the officer approached the man. After speaking with him for a few minutes, the officer noticed a brick in the man’s pocket. The officer asked him to toss the brick to the side. After he complied, the man also pulled out a knife and placed the knife on the ledge. The officer called for backup and secured the knife.
Then the officer noticed the handle of a machete under the man’s clothing. The officer drew his service weapon and ordered the man to put his hands up. The man complied and officers were able to safely take the machete away from the man and make the arrest.
The suspect has been identified as 23 year old Jose Leonardo Marquez of no fixed address.
While the investigation continues, it is not yet clear what Marquez was doing in Washington, D.C. At this time, there is no evidence that Marquez was targeting Members of Congress. So far he is being charged with Carrying a Dangerous Weapon and Possession of a Prohibited Weapon.
