Billy Chemirmir is accused of killing at least two dozen elderly people in North Texas. His case has been cited by Twitter pundits and media outlets as an example of why the United States needs tougher immigration laws.
The serial murder suspect is a Kenyan immigrant. Some have suggested he overstayed a visa and is in the U.S. illegally.
But Chemirmir is not an unauthorized immigrant. According to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he has permanent resident status.
Here’s some of what we know about Chemirmir’s past and his immigration status.
- According to a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News, Chemirmir says he came to the U.S. in 2003, where he sold cars and worked as a senior caregiver.
- In 2004, he married in Denton County. The couple divorced in Dallas County in 2006.
- Chemirmir has been arrested twice on charges of driving while intoxicated: in 2010 in Addison and in 2011 in Dallas. He was arrested on a family violence charge in 2012 and sentenced to 70 days in the Dallas County Jail.
- In June 2016, Chemirmir was arrested on a criminal trespass charge after showing up at Edgemere, a high-end senior living complex in Dallas where authorities now believe he killed two women the month before. He was sentenced to 70 days in the Dallas County Jail but was released on good behavior after 12 days.
Michelle Saenz-Rodriguez, a Dallas immigration attorney, said those previous charges wouldn’t be enough to deport Chemirmir. In 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that DWI convictions aren’t enough to deport someone. Assault, too, is not a deportable offense, although domestic violence is, Saenz-Rodriguez said.
In cases where immigrants commit crimes, state prosecutions have to line up with federal crimes in order for that immigrant to be deported, she said.
“Nothing is black and white in immigration law, that’s for sure,” Saenz-Rodriguez said. “In order for someone to be deported from the United States, the state charge has to be a match with the federal crime.”
On March 20, 2018, Chemirmir was arrested on a charge of capital murder in the death of Lu Thi Harris, 81. He later was charged with attempted capital murder in separate attacks on two women in Frisco and Plano.
Three days later, an immigration hold was placed on Chemirmir’s file. A detainer means that when the person is released from state custody, ICE is able to detain them and potentially begin deportation proceedings. According to ICE’s website, detainers are used when the agency has “probable cause to believe that they are removable from the United States.”
A detainer does not automatically mean that the person in jail is an unauthorized immigrant. ICE also is able to place a detainer on other immigrants “who may pose a threat to our communities,” according to the ICE website. Saenz-Rodriguez said that it can vary from county to county how many detainers are placed on unauthorized immigrants rather than those who have legal status.
Still, the detainer is just a request from the federal agency to the local agency. The local agency is not required to hold immigrants if they post bail or are acquitted, Saenz-Rodriguez said.
“You have to have the cooperation of the local law enforcement agency to honor that detainer,” she said.
In the online jail lookup for Dallas County, Chemirmir’s immigration hold is marked “illegal alien.” Raul Reyna, a spokesperson for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, said that the hold with that designation is placed when ICE files paperwork with the department that someone is “suspected of being an illegal alien.” The designation stays in place while ICE conducts its investigation, Reyna said.
But that marker on the Dallas County Jail website led to confusion among reporters nationwide. The News reported several times that Chemirmir was an unauthorized immigrant but has since corrected those stories.
ICE released a statement confirming Chemirmir’s residency status after he was charged with multiple counts of capital murder.
“On March 23, 2019, deportation officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed an immigration detainer with the Dallas County (Texas) Jail on Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir, 45, a citizen of Kenya and a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., after he was charged with capital murder,” the statement reads.
Further details about his status are confidential. Chemirmir says he is innocent of the charges against him. His lawyer, Phillip Hayes, declined to comment on the case.
The case was the subject of a two-part series, “Guardians,” which ran in December 2019 in The News.
