Police in Texas say they have arrested a man who came to the U.S. through a government immigration program and is charged with killing a 25-year-old woman in Cleveland, Tennessee.
Dayren Roque Lopez, 41, from Cuba, was caught Monday in Zavala County, Texas, after being sought in several states. The body of Dayana Garcia was found in a Cleveland home on Sunday. He is suspected of killing her.
Officials from the Cleveland Police Department said they found Garcia’s body at 315 Northcrest Circle while carrying out a search request following a report of a missing person.
Lopez had gotten away from Tennessee, but Zavala County Sheriff’s officers caught him after getting a message to keep an eye out for his car. In La Pryor, Texas, deputies found a 2008 brown Toyota Corolla with Tennessee license plates and stopped it for a crime.
NewsNation was told by sources that Lopez entered the U.S. on August 5, 2023, through San Ysidro, California, using the CBP One app, a mobile app for some immigration processes. His hearing in immigration court was set for November in Memphis.
Lopez had been charged with domestic violence in February, but officials said he could stay in the U.S. because he had not been convicted.
In response to the arrest, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Lopez got in because border policy wasn’t working.
4 people are charged in a supposed migrant kidnap plot
People who are on terror watchlists are seen more often now than they were in the past.
In the fiscal year 2023, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 172 of these kinds of encounters. That’s up from 100 in 2022 and 16 in 2021. On the watchlists are people who are known or believed to be terrorists and people who work with them.
According to data from the Department of Homeland Security that the House Judiciary Committee got, at least 99 people on the FBI’s terror watchlist came into the country illegally and were let go after being caught by border agents last year.
In June 2024, President Joe Biden signed a series of executive actions that limited the number of migrants who could cross the border until encounters stayed low—under 2,500 per day for a whole week. This was done so that Border Patrol could have more time to deal with each migrant’s case.
The president also explained how he was using his executive powers. He said he was doing what Congress wouldn’t do about an immigration deal that was supported by both parties but failed in the Senate because Trump told Republicans to vote against it.