Carmelo Gonzalez, who found daughter Maria, killed in Pasadena, Texas, almost deported by ice before she could testify – abc7 chicago

Pasadena, Texas – A father, who is a key witness in the shocking murder of his 11-year-old daughter, Maria Gonzalez, was at times of deportation, provoking concerns about the impact of immigration implementation of criminal investigations.

Maria’s father, Carmelo Gonzalez, found her body in a bag under a bed in their apartment in Pasadena Texas, near Houston, in August 2023. According to court records, Maria was attacked and strangled. Just four days later, 18-year-old Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez, a neighbor, was arrested in Louisiana and accused of killing capital. Gonzalez is considered an important witness in the case.

Harris County, Texas District Prosecutor Sean Terre has expressed anxiety about recent developments and emphasized the importance of Gonzalez’s testimony.

“Being so close to the loss of such a decisive witness is really scary,” Tere said. “There is no way you can try this case without giving a voice to this girl, without having the man who raised her and loved her from birth, to be able to talk about her in front of the jurors.”

On January 26, court records show that Gonzalez was arrested for his first crime DWI, a crime. As an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, it was marked by immigration and customs law enforcement (ICE). After the release of Bond the next day, online records show that he was removed for an immigration violation.

By the time the District Prosecutor’s Office was notified and found it, Gonzalez was already on an airplane, Tere said, although there is a pending application for U-VISA, which is usually provided to victims of crimes that support criminal investigations and judicial persecution S

See also: The man poses as an ice agent before

“I have never seen a witness with an application for U-VISA, which has already been removed from the country within a week of entering the ice arrest,” he said. “I’ve never seen this even with someone without a U-Visa application.”

Currently, Gonzalez is being held in a facility in Conro, Texas, while employees are working with ICE to ensure its release. Teare has warned that the latest changes in immigration implementation policies are already influenced by prosecution.

“We have less cooperation for witnesses because of these policies, which means that we are not able to pursue predators who deal with our communities as effective,” Tere said. “These victims, these family members, these witnesses are afraid to appear in the Court of Justice. This, frankly, is full of law enforcement because they are worried about being deported.”

ICE did not respond to requests for comment. The presence of ice agents in the Harris County Prison has long been a reality, but this case, Tere said, emphasizes the increasing uncertainty about the implementation of immigration to the Court of Justice.

While Terre said he wanted to ensure that Gonzalez would be “The voice for this beautiful girl,” he also promises that the DWI case of the father will go through the same process that others do.

In addition, Teare said his cabinet is now monitoring the number of cases affected by the implementation of immigration.