News reports from CNN, ABC and the Associated Press detail Morales-Reyes’ case and how Noem’s highly publicized accusation against him appears to have unraveled.
Prior to Noem accusing Morales-Reyes of threatening to kill the president, local investigators in Milwaukee were already reportedly investigating whether the letter was a setup.
Morales-Reyes was allegedly assaulted by a man in September 2023, who slashed him with a box cutter before stealing his bike.
As the case prepared to go to trial, Ice this month received the letter threatening to assassinate Trump.
“Thanks to our Ice officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” Noem said.
Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), accused an undocumented man last week of threatening to kill Donald Trump in a letter, but news reports suggest that the man may have been set up by someone who is accused of attacking him in the past.
According to reports, investigators are investigating whether the letter was an attempt to have the man deported in order to keep him from testifying against his alleged attacker.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials arrested and detained Ramon Morales-Reyes, a 54-year-old father of three, after the highly publicized accusation.
The case of Morales-Reyes and the apparent unraveling of Noem’s widely reported accusation against him are covered in news reports from CNN, ABC, and the Associated Press. Local investigators in Milwaukee were reportedly looking into whether the letter was a setup before Noem accused Morales-Reyes of threatening to kill the president.
In September of 2023, a man allegedly attacked Morales-Reyes, cutting him with a box cutter and then taking his bicycle. Ice received a letter this month threatening to kill Trump as the case got ready for trial.
The handwritten letter, which was entirely in English and signed with Morales-Reyes’ name, reads, “I will self deport myself back to Mexico but not before I use my 30 yard 6 to shoot your precious president.”.
Morales-Reyes was taken into custody. However, local investigators discovered that Morales-Reyes’ handwriting did not match the letter.
At the same time, lawyers and activists started to work on his case. According to a press release issued on Friday, Morales-Reyes did not write the letter, according to local Wisconsin immigration advocates and lawyers who were with Morales-Reyes’ family.
The executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz, stated, “A family member called our organizers, letting us know that this was impossible, as her father had very little formal education and could not read or write in Spanish – let alone perfect English.”.
According to CNN, which cited police documents it had obtained, Milwaukee officials on Monday started going through jailhouse calls made by the man suspected of assaulting Morales-Reyes and found that he talked about writing letters to Ice to frame his alleged victim. According to reports, he wanted Morales-Reyes deported so that he couldn’t testify in the robbery trial.
According to the CNN report, the individual called earlier in May and said, “He outta there,” in reference to the rise in deportations since Trump’s return to office.
Noem started sharing the charge against Morales-Reyes on Wednesday, along with a picture of the letter and his photo that were published on the DHS website in a press release. The accusation swiftly gained traction on right-wing, Trump-affiliated websites and social media.
Noem stated, “This illegal alien who threatened to kill President Trump is in jail because of our Ice officers.”. “I will keep doing everything in my power to protect President Trump. “”.
The case is still being investigated, DHS and local officials told the Associated Press.
Morales-Reyes applied for a U-visa following the 2023 attack. This type of visa is given to undocumented victims of crime and can pave the way for legal residency. Getting a U-visa is a difficult and drawn-out process.
Morales-Reyes’s ability to testify against the accused criminal, whether Noem will correct the situation, and how his placement in Ice detention might impact his U-visa application process are all unknown.
