Federal immigration authorities have taken a Guatemalan national into custody in Los Angeles following his previous release from local jail under California’s sanctuary policies, according to Department of Homeland Security officials. Juan Jose Leonardo De Leon, an undocumented immigrant, was re-arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on October 19.
The case stems from an arrest in January 2026, when officers with the Los Angeles Police Department detained De Leon and filed grand theft auto charges against him. Following that arrest, ICE officials filed an immigration detainer requesting custody of De Leon, but local jail authorities declined to honor the request due to state sanctuary laws, resulting in his release back into the community.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin criticized the local release in a public statement. Sanctuary politicians in California refused to honor ICE’s detainer and released this convicted drug trafficker and thief back onto the streets, Mullin said.
Federal records indicate that De Leon has prior criminal convictions, including past counts for drug trafficking and grand theft involving stolen copper materials. Despite those convictions and the federal detainer request, state policies prevented local law enforcement from transferring him to federal custody in January.
Following his October 19 apprehension by federal agents, Mullin praised the enforcement action. Thankfully, because of the hard work of the brave patriots of ICE, we’ve arrested this criminal and taken him off the streets, Mullin said. No matter how hard sanctuary politicians try to obstruct us and protect illegal aliens over American citizens, the Trump Administration will always enforce the rule of law, arrest and deport illegal aliens, and save American lives. That’s what it means to put America first.
Background information provided by federal authorities indicates that De Leon initially entered the United States legally in February 2004. However, immigration records show he overstayed his visa by April of that same year, remaining in the country without legal status for more than two decades prior to his recent arrests.
