An illegal alien from Mexico who was in prison for 20 years for killing a toddler has been deported, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said this week.
Akira Salinas-Ruiz was convicted in 2007 of first-degree reckless homicide for the killing of his girlfriend’s toddler, Santiago Teniente Jr., in Wisconsin.
ICE said this week that Salinas-Ruiz was deported after the prison where he was handed him over on Feb. 17.
According to federal records, Salinas-Ruiz illegally entered the U.S. in April 2002, but was caught by border agents who “granted him a voluntary return to Mexico,” ICE said.
“This criminal illegal alien — this convicted child-murderer — should never have been in the U.S. in the first place,” ICE Director Todd M. Lyons said in a statement. “Had he not snuck into the U.S., Santiago Teniente Jr. could be in his senior year of college, living the life he was meant to lead. Instead, Salinas-Ruiz stole that little boy’s future.”
“That’s why the men and women of ICE brave a 1,427% increase in assaults and an 8,000% increase in death threats to get out on the streets every day and arrest criminal illegal aliens who are already known public safety threats,” Lyons added. “If we can save even one child from something like this through targeted enforcement, it’s worth it.”
In addition to the homicide charge, Salinas-Ruiz also had a charge of physical abuse of a child. Paramedics who responded to the 2006 incident were told Teniente Jr. had fallen, but a doctor believed his injuries were from shaken baby syndrome.
Salinas-Ruiz was ordered to be removed from the U.S. by an immigration judge in May 2008 while he was still in prison.
