The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on June 17 confirmed that the alleged leader of a plot to carry out a terrorist attack against the White House’s UFC event over the past weekend is an illegal immigrant who was allowed to stay in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
In a statement, the DHS confirmed that Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, a Mexican illegal immigrant, entered the United States on a B-2 visitor visa and failed to depart the country after it expired in 2001.
In 2014, according to the department, he was granted DACA status, an Obama administration policy that allowed some people who were illegally present in the United States to receive deferred action from deportation procedures and be eligible to work.
“This illegal alien from Mexico should never have been allowed in our country. He was the ringleader of a failed terror attack targeting UFC Freedom 250 at the White House,” acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “He and his co-conspirators now face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit violence on White House grounds. He will face justice and swiftly be removed from our country.”
Earlier this week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) accused Alvarez, who allegedly went by the moniker “Shepherd” online, of organizing, directing, and planning the attack against the UFC event, which was held on the night of June 14 on the South Lawn of the White House and was attended by President Donald Trump and other White House officials.
The FBI arrested Alvarez and four others across the United States, finding that they had allegedly procured weapons and made plans to launch the attack. The law enforcement agency made arrests in Ohio, Missouri, Nebraska, and California, according to the DOJ.
“This is the best action I see. Position your teams in the purple dots (counter sniper and drones) Long range (circled area) (great shot) Easy out into the river,” Alvarez is accused of saying in a chat app to several others who were later arrested in the plot.
He is also accused of replying to another member about making explosive drones, saying at one point to get “as many and as deadly” as they could get.
The five people who were charged appeared to have an anti-government animus and were motivated in part by anger at the handling of investigative files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said in documents. The attack, according to the papers, was designed to “jumpstart” a revolution in the United States.
Alvarez also told members of a messenger chat group that after the attack, the conspirators “expected the system to collapse” after their attack was carried out and “encouraged individuals in the group to seek refuge and stay within ... pre-determined tiers,” the court papers said.
Vice President JD Vance said earlier this week that authorities were trying to look at the underground networks that would drive such violence.
“That’s not a few guys doing crazy stuff, that is a coordinated planned terrorist plot,” Vance told Fox News in an interview.
Alvarez has not yet entered a plea in court. A public defender assigned to him did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment. Proper’s court-appointed public defender did not return a request for comment.
