A 19-year-old Venezuelan national, Josue Abraham Chirino-Leonice, has been charged with the murder of carpenter Juan Antonio Salinas Leija after allegedly beating him to death with a sledgehammer at a Houston construction site.

ICE confirmed that Chirino-Leonice was arrested by Border Patrol in November 2023 but released into the country by the Biden administration. He was later recaptured and charged with Salinas Leija’s murder, which occurred earlier this month at a home under renovation.

Salinas Leija’s family discovered his body after not hearing from him for two days.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations Houston acting field office director Gabriel Martinez described Chirino-Leonice as “a criminal illegal alien who never should have been allowed into the country” and stated that the suspect “savagely beat a co-worker to death with a sledgehammer and left him to die in a house they were renovating together.”

ICE has placed a detainer request on Chirino-Leonice, asking Harris County officials not to release him.