WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has lodged a detainer asking Texas officials not to release an illegal alien charged in two separate fatal shootings in Harris County, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.
According to local reporting cited by DHS, the suspect is Jefferson Adonay Velasquez-Torres, a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador. Velasquez-Torres was arrested following a shooting outside a Houston nightclub on April 27 that killed 27-year-old Noah Ramirez. He had previously been charged in connection with a shooting at a Houston house party on August 30, 2025, that killed 17-year-old Angel Garcia.
Velasquez-Torres now faces two counts of murder, along with charges of unlawfully carrying a weapon and aggravated robbery. ICE has lodged a detainer with the Harris County Jail requesting that officials notify the agency before releasing him.
Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said the case involves a criminal illegal alien charged with two counts of murder tied to two fatal shootings in Houston. Bis said he would not be in the country if not for what she described as the open-border policies of the Obama administration, and said ICE asked Texas officials not to release him without notifying the agency. She credited Texas’s cooperation with ICE in keeping what she called a public safety threat off the streets.
According to DHS, Velasquez-Torres entered the United States illegally through Texas as a minor in 2014 and was released into the country under the Obama administration.
