How crazy is the United States immigration enforcement system? An El Salvadoran man alleged to be a member of the Surenos gang living in Los Angeles who was convicted of murder and other violent crimes is being protected from deportation by the Trump administration because of a December 2024 Biden Department of Justice ruling protecting the killer from being sent back to El Salvador over fears of torture, and a 2025 nationwide injunction by a federal judge delaying deputations to third party countries.
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin filed a stunning report after doing a ride-along with Homeland Security agents when they went to arrest Alexander Alfredo Palacios Guevara on a deportation order.
Guevara did not resist arrest. He shocked unaware agents and Melugin when he told them as he was being led into an ICE detention center, “I have CAT, I have CAT,” shorthand for DCAT, Deferral of Removal under the Convention Against Torture protection from deportation.
Guevara explained, “I just got CAT on December the 18th of last year by the BIA. You can call my lawyer.”
Asked by Melugin if he was a convicted murderer, Guevara responded, “I am free.”
ICE confirmed Guevara’s protected status and released him later that day, only to go pick him up the following day. He remains in custody as a threat to public safety while the Trump administration works on deporting him.
Hellbound and Down 