Last week, San Diego federal judge Dana Sabraw ordered the release of David Antonio Aviles Perez (an alleged machete-wielding MS-13 executioner known as “the Witch”) despite an aggravated-homicide conviction and a 20-year sentence in El Salvador.
David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, was captured by ICE agents in San Diego in March on an international warrant accusing him of aggravated murder.
He had been held in federal custody pending his removal from the US.
But before authorities could arrange for his extradition, Aviles Perez was released last Wednesday by federal Judge Jinsook Ohta, who ordered his release from a southern California ICE detention facility by 5 p.m. the following day.
It turns out “The Witch” benefited from Biden’s “Catch and Release” program, and then went on to enjoy California’s “Sanctuary State” status. In April of this year, ICE nabbed him while he was roaming the streets after his initial release in 2023.
California’s sanctuary law is under fire yet again after a notorious MS-13 machete-wielding gangster known as “the witch” has been nabbed for the second time in the state after being caught and released during the Biden administration in 2023.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in San Diego have arrested David Antonio Aviles Perez, 35, who is wanted in El Salvador for aggravated murder. He was first arrested and released in Monterey, California, in 2023 on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly swinging a machete at a man.
“ICE arrested this dangerous criminal illegal alien and MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for murder,” Acting Assistant Department of Homeland Secretary (DHS) Lauren Bis wrote in a statement last week.
“Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be released from jail after his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft.”
The judge released Perez because his Fifth Amendment due process rights had been violated.
After nearly five months in immigration custody, Aviles Perez filed a petition challenging his detention and seeking his immediate release.
Ohta ruled that immigration officials violated his Fifth Amendment due process rights by holding him without an individualized assessment of whether he was dangerous or likely to flee.
“Although Petitioner appears to have previously been convicted following a fight with another individual in May 2023, the government has offered no evidence that it detained him after considering those facts and making an individualized determination of his danger to the public or flight risk,” Ohta wrote.
As a San Diego resident, I am troubled that this little “spark of divinity” is out and about in this area.
🚨A Biden-appointed California judge ordered ICE to free MS-13’s “The Witch,” a man El Salvador already sentenced for a kneeling execution!!
⠀
U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta, put on the Southern District of California bench by Joe Biden in 2021, ordered David Antonio Aviles… pic.twitter.com/IkUNJ0iwdm— Blue Lives Matter (@bluelivesmtr) September 6, 2026
Apparently, I am not the only one. The backlash has been so severe that prosecutors are begging forgiveness for the huge legal error that led to the release of “The Witch.”
San Diego prosecutors begged forgiveness in court Tuesday for releasing the MS-13 member, who was captured by San Diego ICE agents in March on an international warrant and was being held pending removal from the US.
But federal prosecutors admitted that they failed to tell federal Judge Jinsook Ohta about the man’s criminal history, which also includes a California arrest for allegedly attacking a vagrant with a machete.
“My failure was an unintentional mistake, and I sincerely apologize to the Court for my omission,” wrote Assistant US Attorney Michael Wallace in a sworn declaration showing remorse for the legal blunder.
US Attorney Adam Gordon and his office, which represents ICE, called Wallace’s omission a one-off.
Meanwhile, Perez remains at large…somewhere in California…maybe.
DHS says a Biden-appointed federal judge ordered the immediate release of an MS-13 gang member convicted in an execution-style murder in El Salvador — ruling that ICE held him for five months without a bond hearing or individualized assessment of whether he posed a danger to the… pic.twitter.com/84fsa2mQ9j
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 6, 2026
“The Witch” drama is not a mysterious systems failure; rather, it is a great example of a preventable government blunder involving incomplete information, ideological immigration policies, and a criminal defendant who should never have fallen through the cracks.
Californians are entitled to more than apologies after the fact: We deserve to know who failed, why the system failed, and whether authorities can find “the Witch” before someone else pays the price.
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