By Suzanne Gamboa - NBC News
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, came under fire Monday for referring to the victims of a shooting in a city northeast of Houston that left five Hondurans dead as "illegal immigrants."
Abbott announced on Twitter a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, whom authorities believe responsible for the deaths of five neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy, in Cleveland. , Friday night, using an AR-15 rifle.
The governor specified that the reward is to locate a fugitive "who is in the country illegally and killed five illegal immigrants."
Oropesa had entered the United States irregularly and had been deported at least four times, sources from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to Noticias Telemundo.
Abbott's words were immediately condemned, noting that his goal is to "dehumanize" the victims.
Some users also defended that one of the women who lost her life in the shooting was a permanent resident of the United States.
The youngest victim is Daniel Enrique Laso, who authorities originally said was 8 but NBC News later confirmed was 9. The other four were identified by police as 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzmán;
Diana Velázquez Alvarado, 21 years old;
Julisa Molina Rivera, 31 years old;
and José Jonathan Casarez, 18 years old.
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“It is below the dignity of the governor to challenge the victims of a mass shooting about their legal status,” lamented Domingo García, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
“All the victims are Latino and so is the alleged shooter.
This is a tragedy involving another serial murder and a weapon of war that was used in the killing.
That is the question, not the legal status of the victims,” he noted.
Maritza Wong, a Texas volunteer with Moms Demand Action, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws, said, “The first statement out of Greg Abbott's mouth is to turn this tragedy into a dog whistle.
Meanwhile our governor refuses to make the most basic changes to Texas gun laws that would make our families safer and every day he does he is giving up on public safety."
["They were friends and he killed him": the boy killed in the massacre in Texas was riding a bicycle with the son of the attacker]
Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group America's Voice, said in an email to NBC News that "the only thing the governor should care about" is that it was "another mass shooting that killed innocent people." who lived in Texas.
ICE reported that, in addition to being expelled from the country several times, Oropesa had also been convicted in Montgomery County (Texas) for driving while intoxicated in January 2012 and sentenced to serve time in jail.
Texas authorities confirmed that all the victims were Hondurans, but did not disclose whether they were US citizens or legal residents, had temporary protected status or a visa, or were in the country illegally.
The FBI and the state Department of Public Safety did not respond to requests for records or data to verify the governor's description of the victims.
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The Privacy Act requires that the information of legal permanent residents be protected from unauthorized disclosure and provides for civil and criminal penalties for violations.
For David Leopold, legal adviser for America's Voice, it is speculation that the victims of the shooting were undocumented, unless it is known that a judge ordered them expelled from the country or that they had volunteered to leave.
Even if they were immigrants without legal documents to be in the United States, they could have some type of permission to stay in the country, Leopold recalled.
This shooting is in addition to the shootings that occurred under the Abbott government, including the massacre at a Uvalde school on May 24 of last year, in which 19 elementary school children and two teachers were murdered.
[The alleged murderer of five Latinos in Texas “could be anywhere”, according to the police]
Parents of victims in that shooting have pleaded with state legislators to send the governor a bill that would raise the minimum age to purchase certain assault rifles from 18 to 21, with a few exceptions.
Agents who were in Uvalde allege that the power of the weapon used in the massacre was part of the reason it took them 77 minutes to enter the center and apprehend the shooter.
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Abbott has invested more than $4 billion and the Legislature is contributing millions more in a border security project that has used state troops, the National Guard, state prisons and state trespass laws in a security control program. state-operated immigration known as Operation Lone Star.
Arrests of people crossing the border from Mexico have increased in recent times.
Many turn themselves in and ask for asylum.
With the return of good weather and the end of Title 42 on March 11, the authorities foresee a record increase in migrant arrivals.