Supporters of police and border enforcement criticized what they described as open border policies that allowed an illegal immigrant suspected of murdering an Air Force recruit to enter the country.
Joe Gamaldi, the national vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police, expressed his disgust upon learning that 18-year-old Ava Moore, a Texas native on the verge of starting cadet training at the United States Air Force Academy, was allegedly killed by someone who should not have been in the United States.
“How many incidents must we witness where individuals, who should never have been in this country, end up causing the death or murder of someone here legally?” he questioned. “How many families must be torn apart? How much trauma must we endure from people who shouldn’t be here?”
Moore was a star basketball player at the U.S. Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado whose goal was to become a four-star general.
Art Del Cueto is the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, a union that represents 18,000 U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
Like Gamaldi, he believes the damage from the previous administration’s open border policies isn’t over.
“Another senseless death,” he said. “I think that, unfortunately, though, there will be others. We don’t know how many people are in the country illegally. And, yes, it could’ve been someone that’s legally in the U.S., but in this case it wasn’t. It was somebody that should not have been in the country to begin with. Unfortunately, there’s too many politicians that continue to put obstacles from allowing law enforcement to do their job.”
Daikerlyn Alejandraa Gonzalez-Gonzalez, 22, was charged with second-degree manslaughter, a felony, for allegedly striking and killing Moore while riding a jet ski on Lake Grapevine in Texas last weekend.
Maikel Coello Perozo, 21, is accused of picking Gonzalez-Gonzalez up and fleeing. Authorities allege Perozo hit another vehicle while speeding off. He has been charged with a collision involving damage to a vehicle and hindering apprehension, both misdemeanors.
Mughots of Daikerlyn Alejandraa Gonzalez-Gonzalez and Maikel Coello Perozo. (Texas Parks and Wildlife)
Police reportedly found packed suitcases in the home where Gonzalez-Gonzalez and Perozo were arrested.
They were identified as illegal aliens from Venezuela by U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Wednesday.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security also slammed Biden’s border policies in a post on X.
“Ava Moore was a patriot serving her country when she was killed by an illegal alien in a hit-and-run over Memorial Day weekend. This senseless tragedy was 100 percent preventable,” the post said.
“Daikerlyn Gonzalez and Maikel Perozo entered the U.S. illegally in 2023 and were released into our interior,” the post added.
“The previous administration’s open border policies have cost too many Americans their lives. President Trump and Secretary Noem will continue to stand with victims of illegal alien crime and their families.”
Moore’s becomes yet another high-profile death allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien.
Laken Riley poses for a photo on Facebook. Riley, a nursing student, was found dead near a lake on the University of Georgia campus Feb. 22, 2024. (Laken Riley/Facebook)
Jose Ibarra, also from Venezuela, was convicted last year of murdering Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, while she was jogging on the University of Georgia campus.
Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, who lived in the Houston area, was sexually assaulted and strangled to death last year, allegedly by two Venezuelan illegal aliens accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The suspects in that case are Franklin Jose Pena Ramos and Johan Jose Rangel Martinez.
Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old New Jersey mother of five, was killed by Salvadoran illegal alien Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez in 2023. A jury found Martinez-Hernandez guilty of Morin’s murder in April.
