US President Donald Trump has strongly condemned the beheading of an Indian-origin hotel manager allegedly by a Cuban illegal immigrant in Dallas last week.
“The time for being soft on these Illegal Immigrant Criminals is OVER under my watch,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Chandra Mouli Nagamallaiah, 50, was attacked with a machete by his co-worker Yordanis Cobos-Martinez in front of his wife and child, following a heated argument over a broken washing machine. The accused, who is now in custody, has been charged with murder.
Trump has long vowed tougher enforcement against undocumented migrants, making it a central plank of his policy.
Trump said Mr Cobos-Martinez “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent” of the law and will be “charged with murder in the first degree”.
He also criticised the Biden administration in his post saying Mr Cobos-Martinez was previously arrested for several crimes, including alleged child abuse, but was “released back into society because Cuba declined to accept his return”.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, Mr Cobos-Martinez is an undocumented immigrant, with a final order of removal from the US.
The department claims he was in custody at a detention center in Dallas but was released on an order of supervision in January after Cuba “would not accept him because of his criminal history”.
Nagamallaiah, who belonged to the southern Indian state of Karnataka, worked at the Downtown Suites Motel in Dallas.
He went to school and college in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru before moving to the US in 2018. His son graduated high school recently and is preparing to begin college, according to a news report on NDTV news channel.
The assault took place on 10 September. The police said they received a “stabbing” call and a preliminary investigation determined that Mr Cobos-Martinez had cut the victim with an edged weapon several times.
He then reportedly kicked the head of the victim “around like a soccer ball”, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged Mr Cobos-Martinez with the Dallas County Jail, where he is being held.
Nagamallaiah’s funeral was held on 13 September in Flower Mound, Texas, and was attended by family and friends.
A fundraiser launched to support his family has raised more than $321,000 (£2,36,723), according to news agency PTI.
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