A Wisconsin resident has been found guilty of devising a complex scheme aimed at deporting a Mexican man before he could provide testimony against him in a legal matter. The perpetrator successfully misled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into believing that he was an immigrant dishwasher and father of three responsible for sending threatening letters about President Donald Trump. This deception led federal authorities to mistakenly feature the man’s image and name on the DHS website after wrongfully arresting him for fabricating threats.

“I was the author of those letters. I have never denied that,” Demetric Scott declared in court last week, prior to being found guilty of felony identity theft and witness intimidation, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Scott admitted his intention to have the dishwasher, Ramon Morales Reyes, deported. Morales Reyes now faces potential deportation.

The 52-year-old Scott was convicted on Thursday after a trial in Milwaukee County, as indicated by online court records. He reportedly enlisted his mother’s unwitting assistance in his scheme by asking her to mail fictitious letters, supposedly from Morales Reyes. These letters contained threats to assassinate Trump and “destroy the White House” — and the entire nation — “similar to 911 in New York,” according to the prosecution.

“I am not intimidated by the Trump Administration,” Scott wrote in one of the counterfeit letters, according to a criminal complaint.

“We Mexicans are fed up with this president’s actions,” Scott stated. “We have contributed more to this country than you white people — you have been deporting my family, and I believe it is time for Donald J. Trump to face consequences. I will return to Mexico voluntarily, but not before I… harm your cherished president.”

Scott framed Morales Reyes after being detained for allegedly assaulting him while stealing a bicycle Morales Reyes was riding in Milwaukee. Prosecutors alleged that Scott knocked Morales Reyes off his bike and then attacked him with a box cutter before escaping with the bicycle. While incarcerated for the alleged assault, Scott orchestrated the death-threat ruse, hoping to have Morales Reyes deported before he could testify against him.

“They just need to pick his a— up,” Scott told an acquaintance during a jailhouse phone call. “I’m dead serious cause I got jury trial on July 15th. I got final pretrial on June 16th so if he is apprehended by the 16th, we can go into court and say, ‘Hey, he’s in custody now. … There is no reason for us to even continue the July 15th jury date.’ And the judge will agree cause if he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a jury trial so they will probably dismiss it that day. That’s my plan.”

In another call, Scott said: “I don’t want to take a chance and lose, I’m facing too much time. So, I told my lawyer, postpone this get everything we can get that way I can beat this motherf—ing case. I said, ’cause the next time I go to court, I want to win.’”

Law enforcement sources familiar with the death-threat investigation told CNN that federal officials knew Morales Reyes did not pen the letters but Noem and her office reported that he wrote and sent them to an ICE office anyway, while publicly identifying and accusing him in a press release. Time stamps on social media posts from Noem and the timing of the DHS press release both fall on the same day that a judge signed a search warrant for Scott’s jail cell in connection with the letters — May 28, 2025, according to court documents.

“This threat comes not even a year after President Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania and less than two weeks after former FBI Director Comey called for the President’s assassination,” Noem said. “All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trump’s life and tone down their rhetoric. I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of President Trump.”

ICE arrested Morales Reyes in May 2025 and booked him at the Dodge County Jail in Juneau, Wisconsin, pending removal proceedings as he was “in the U.S. illegally,” according to DHS officials. The Associated Press reports that he moved to the U.S. from Mexico in the 1980s and was working as a dishwasher in Milwaukee. The father of three, who is married, is currently out on bond and has applied for a U-visa, which allows crime victims and their family members to live in the U.S., per the AP.

“He’s been traumatized by going through all this, all these different levels that feel like victimization,” deportation defense attorney Cain Oulahan told the AP. “He just wants to work and be with his family again.”

Scott is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27. He faces up to 26 years in prison.