IOPList.Org

Gangbanger Awarded Asylum at 13
Under Obama Program Guilty of Machete Murder


JULY 07, 2021

JUDICIAL WATCH





An illegal immigrant gangbanger who entered the country as a kid under
an Obama open borders initiative has plead guilty to the brutal machete
murder of a New York teen. The native of El Salvador, Samuel Ponce,
came to the U.S. at the age of 13 as part of a program that has welcomed
hundreds of thousands of mostly Central American minors via the Mexican border.
The government classifies them as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC)
and most come from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The number
of UAC in U.S. custody more than doubled in the last few months following
a big drop during the Trump administration and the government is currently
housing more than 21,000. President Trump tried to control the damage with
an order instructing federal agents to stop giving minors special protections
when they are processed. In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Trump administration expelled nearly 9,000 migrant children under an
emergency health order.

Like many UAC granted asylum, Ponce was released to a relative in Long Island,
New York after a brief time in a taxpayer-funded shelter. He joined the famously
violent Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a feared street gang of mostly Central American
illegal immigrants that has spread throughout the U.S. and is renowned for drug
distribution, murder, rape, robbery, home invasions, kidnappings, vandalism and
other violent crimes. At 15 Ponce, also known as “Little Chickie,” and his fellow
MS-13 brothers savagely murdered a Uniondale teen, Bryan Lemus, with a machete
in the Massapequa Park Preserve. The victim was walking his dog when he was
lured into the preserve, a 432-acre county property with nature trails, swamps,
and streams. Police said in a local news report that Lemus was associated with
the gang but some members felt he was an enemy of their clique and
“he was marked for death.”

The teen’s body was not found for years, until homicide detectives discovered it
in a shallow grave while searching the area. The crime occurred in 2016, the body
was recovered in 2019, and in 2020 four MS-13 gang members, including Ponce’s
brother, Raul, got indicted by the Nassau County District Attorney. Samuel Ponce
had already been charged and arrested. Just days ago, he plead guilty to second
degree murder, according to a statement issued by the Nassau County District
Attorney’s Office. “Bryan Lemus was just 18 years old when he was viciously
attacked and violently murdered with machetes by the defendant and multiple
MS-13 members,” the county’s top prosecutor, Joyce Smith, said in the statement.
Ponce, who is 20 years old, was arrested on September 17, 2019.
Because he was only 15 when he committed the atrocious crime, there is a cap
on the maximum sentence, 15 years to life in prison.

The criminal path Ponce embarked on after entering the U.S. illegally is not uncommon
among the scores of UAC that have benefitted from Uncle Sam’s welcome mat. When
the barrage of UAC began in 2014, Homeland Security sources told Judicial Watch that
the nation’s most violent street gangs—including MS-13 and the 18th Street gang—were
actively recruiting new members at U.S. shelters housing the minors. The Texas Department
of Public Safety subsequently confirmed that MS-13 is a top tier gang thanks to the influx
of illegal alien gang members that crossed into the state under Obama’s disastrous program.
It has ignited a national crisis because the Justice Department’s National Gang Intelligence
Center (NGIC) says criminal street gangs like the MS-13 are responsible for most violent
crimes in the U.S. and are the primary distributors of most illicit drugs.

Just a few years ago, the steady flow of illegal immigrant minors energized a Maryland
MS-13 sector to the point that the gang terrorized a public middle school less than 10 miles
from the nation’s capital. A lengthy mainstream newspaper article reported that teachers
are afraid, drugs are sold, gang graffiti litter the area surrounding the campus and gang-related
fights are a daily occurrence. Dozens of teachers, parents and students interviewed for
the story confirmed MS-13 aggressively recruits students recently arrived from Central America
and an eighth grader said the gang “dominates the school.”

Besides curbing the number of UAC entering the U.S., the Trump administration launched a
special task force to gut the MS-13, the nation’s deadliest street gang, and key leaders were
taken down. For the first time, an MS-13 chief was federally charged with terrorism-related
offenses and the powerful Hollywood leadership was taken down. The administration also
pursued the death penalty against a high-ranking MS-13 operative. In New York, where the
Ponce brothers operated, the Trump administration indicted an MS-13 director, Alexi Saenz,
accused of committing seven murders, including two high school students with a
machete and baseball bat.