A 19-year-old Venezuelan national suspected of killing his co-worker with a sledgehammer in the Houston area was arrested after being found with the victim’s vehicle.
Local law enforcement charged Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice with murder on April 12 in Harris County, Texas, for the brutal bludgeoning of his co-worker.
He was later determined to be in the country illegally, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has asked officials in Democratic-run Harris County not to release him.
Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela, murdered his co-worker by hitting him with a sledgehammer multiple times.
The U.S. Border Patrol first apprehended Chirino-Leonice in November 2023 when he arrived at the border as an unaccompanied minor.… https://t.co/hSKpHNSdNT pic.twitter.com/gMmFsm3yDj
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 21, 2026
According to court documents, Chirino-Leonice is accused of striking the victim with a sledgehammer and leaving him to die in a house they were renovating together. Prosecutors allege the attack happened on or about April 10, KHOU-11 reported.
ICE lodged a detainer request on Chirino-Leonice with the Harris County Jail following his arrest. ICE has said he was “recklessly released into the country by the Biden administration.”
“This criminal illegal alien — who never should have been allowed into the country in the first place — is accused of savagely beating a co-worker to death with a sledgehammer,” said ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting Field Office Director Gabriel Martinez.
The U.S. Border Patrol first arrested Chirino-Leonice in November 2023, according to ICE records, and he was caught and released at the border along with millions of other migrants.
Chirino-Leonice reportedly attacked the man at a construction site in a suburb of Texas’ largest city, Houston. Police found him driving the victim’s car in Pasadena, Texas, a suburb of Houston, FOX 26 Houston reported.
Local investigators identified the victim as 47-year-old Juan Antonio Salinas Leija, who was found dead inside a house under renovation in Spring, Texas, on Sunday, April 12, KHOU-11 reported.
Salinas, a carpenter, had been working on renovating the home for several weeks.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office detectives responded to the home after Salinas’ family became concerned. They went looking for him since they hadn’t heard from him since Friday afternoon.
A woman called 911 around 11:30 a.m. April 12 and reported her brother was dead. When officers arrived, they found the victim’s body downstairs.
Investigators said Salinas suffered severe trauma to his upper torso as well as his head and neck from an unknown object. They ruled out it being from an accident.
“I’m not going to go into detail about the injuries, but the injuries are too severe,” Sgt. Michael Ritchie with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said in the KHOU-11 report.
Salinas’ truck was later found in the Pasadena area with four people inside. They were taken to the Sheriff’s Office Homicide Office to be interviewed.
FOX 26 Houston identified the suspected killer as Josue Chirino, who was arrested driving the victim’s truck in east Houston.
A woman and two juvenile teens who were in the vehicle were released, but detectives questioned and ultimately charged Chirino-Leonice in the case.
Investigators said they canvassed the neighborhood and reviewed surveillance video as part of the case. Chirino was with Salinas the last day he was heard from, police said.
ICE Houston shared news of Chirino-Leonice’s arrest and immigration hold on social media, as well as an update from early April regarding the arrest of nearly 150 dangerous criminal illegal immigrants in the Houston area.
The group included five child predators, two drug traffickers, 14 thieves, 62 violent offenders, one arsonist, seven hit-and-run DWIs, and nine aliens convicted of a combined 31 DWIs.
“Our officers are working tirelessly to restore integrity to our nation’s immigration system to bring an end to the carnage and unnecessary suffering in this country that’s caused by criminal illegal aliens,” Martinez said in a statement, adding “we won’t rest until we’ve accomplished that mission.”
Officials in Democratic-run Harris County, which includes the City of Houston, have been feuding with Texas officials over a new policy limiting law enforcement cooperation with ICE, Fox News Digital reported.
The ICE Houston field office oversees immigration enforcement in 58 counties in Southeast Texas, stretching down the Texas Gulf Coast from Beaumont to Corpus Christi and from Houston/Galveston out to Waco, Texas.
ICE Houston has made a push to arrest thousands of illegal immigrants in the Houston area since President Donald Trump’s second term began. Those arrests have included at least 414 criminal illegal aliens who have been charged with or convicted of child sex offenses as well as DWI offenders, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The Democratic-majority Houston City Council recently voted to end a policy requiring law enforcement to hold illegal immigrants for ICE for at least 30 minutes after they are due to be released.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has called the policy a “breach of contract” with the state. Last week, he pressured the city to reverse the move or pay the state back $110 million in funding, Fox News reported.
DHS officials also emphasized the Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense and sanity to the nation’s immigration system.
“Under President Donald J. Trump and Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security will not gamble with the safety of Americans and our national security — as previous administrations have done — by allowing murderers, child rapists, gang members and other dangerous criminal illegal aliens to remain in our communities unvetted and unchecked,” officials said in a statement.
