Federal authorities arrested a migrant living in the country illegally who allegedly planned to kill President Trump before self-deporting to Mexico, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced Wednesday in a message also calling for people to “tone down their rhetoric.”
Mexican national Ramon Morales-Reyes, 54, was arrested May 22 after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field intelligence officer received a letter in the mail from Morales-Reyes in which he stated he wanted to shoot Trump in the head before departing the U.S.
“We are tired of this president messing with us Mexicans — we have done more for this country than you white people,” he allegedly wrote in the letter. “You have been deporting my family and I think it is time Donald J. Trump get what he has coming to him.”
“I will self deport myself back to Mexico, but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president in his head — I will see him at one of his big ralleys,” Morales-Reyes added in the handwritten note.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Morales-Reyes entered the U.S. illegally at least nine times between 1998 and 2005 and has a criminal record that includes arrests for a felony hit-and-run, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier.
He is being held in ICE custody at Dodge County Jail in Juneau, Wis., pending deportation proceedings, the DHS said.
Noem noted in her release that the threatening letter followed an Instagram post from former FBI Director James Comey that Trump and his allies viewed as a call for the 47th president’s assassination. The Secret Service interviewed Comey on May 16 about his photo of seashells on a beach that spelled out “86 47.”
Comey denied the photo was a call for violence and removed the post.
Noem also pointed that Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., with the bullet narrowly missing his head in a failed assassination attempt last summer.
“All politicians and members of the media should take notice of these repeated attempts on President Trump’s life and tone down their rhetoric,” she said. “I will continue to take all measures necessary to ensure the protection of President Trump.”
