Was America’s Next Top Model contestant Mirjana Puhar murded by an illegal immigrant with known gang connections?
U.S. Senator Charles Grassley wants to find out.
Puhar, 19, was one of the victims of a triple homicide in Charlotte, North Carolina, late last month. She was a runner-up in the 21st installment of the reality show which aired last year. Police arrested a 19-year-old suspect, Emmanuel Jesus Rangel, and charged him with three counts of first-degree murder. Cops reportedly believe the crime may have been drug related.
The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking the agency for details on the suspect’s immigration status, if any, particularly if he applied for and was granted permission to stay in the country under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Grassley also wants to know if whether federal authorities knew Rangel was allegedly a gang member.
In June, 2012, without going through Congress, President Obama suspended the deportation of about one million undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children under the DACA program. These immigrants are often referred to as “DREAMers” after the DREAM Act that was never voted into law by Congress.
In November, 2014, the president unilaterally granted what amounts to amnesty to five million or more illegal immigrants. The latter action has been put on hold for now by a Texas federal judge.
Under Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, Congress — not the Executive Branch — is vested with the power to establish laws relating to immigration.
Added Grassley’s letter: “If approved for DACA, has Rangel-Hernandez’s DACA grant been terminated? Has his employment authorization been terminated? If so, when? If not, why not?”
In a press release accompanying the letter, Grassley expressed concern that the administration pressured DHS officials to rubber-stamp DACA applications. The senator gave DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson a March 9 deadline to turn over Rangel’s complete immigration file, if there is one.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, about 167,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records are at large in the U.S. after being released by authorities.
Commenting on the Grassley inquiry, FNC’s Judge Andrew Napolitano told Megyn Kelly on The Kelly File the following.
“Senator Grassley says he has a source; we don’t know who the source is…the program under which Sen. Grassley’s source believes [the suspect] was allowed to stay here was not legislated by Congress. This is another executive order written by the president inconsistent with federal law…When the president writes the laws and the Congress does nothing about it, and the whole government apparatus follows the president’s newly-written law the way he wants it to be, Congress is as much to blame as the president…Whether you think these people should be here or not is not the story. The president should not be making that decision; only Congress can.”
Kelly noted that if the suspect in the Mirjana Puhar murder was a confirmed gang member, he was not eligible for the DACA program in the first place.
[Photo By Rachel Murray/Getty Images Entertainment]