The Obama administration last year began the process of granting legal status to a 36-year-old illegal immigrant with a long criminal rap sheet whom agents had twice tried to deport, and who now stands accused of killing his 15-year-old girlfriend, mother of one child with him and pregnant with another.
The Texas case, involving Armando Garcia-Ramirez, a Mexican, is raising new questions about immigration enforcement under President Obama, as supporters of President Trump point to the matter as proof of a broken immigration system.
Mr. Garcia may even have been the girl’s stepfather at the time he impregnated her — something federal authorities apparently missed last year after he was arrested for smuggling five other illegal immigrants into the U.S.
Prosecutors declined to pursue the smuggling case, and Mr. Garcia made bond on immigration charges and was let go.
Months later Mr. Garcia was even approved for a work permit, letting him get a job and making him eligible for taxpayer benefits.
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