Biden-Appointed Judge Orders Release of Internationally Wanted MS-13 Killer Known as “The Witch”

Adriana Stone 0 2 min read

Biden-Appointed Judge Orders Release of Internationally Wanted MS-13 Killer Known as “The Witch”

A federal judge in California has ordered the release of a convicted MS-13 killer who was wanted internationally for aggravated murder in El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered the immediate release of 35-year-old David Antonio Aviles Perez, a Salvadoran national who entered the United States in December 2013 and remained in the country illegally, according to court records.

Aviles Perez is known in El Salvador as “La Bruja,” or “The Witch.” ICE captured him in San Diego on March 26, 2026, after he was sought under an international warrant.

The case involves far more than an immigration technicality. According to El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office, Aviles Perez and fellow MS-13 member Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores hunted down a man in La Unión in July 2014.

The gang members reportedly chased the victim and fired at him as he tried to escape. They then joined several other attackers who forced the man to stop and kneel. The victim was shot repeatedly in the chest, back, and face before the killers fled.

Aviles Perez and Mendoza Flores were each sentenced to 20 years in prison. The convictions were handed down in absentia because both gang members had fled.

Instead of being quickly returned to El Salvador, Aviles Perez petitioned a federal court for release from ICE custody. On August 26, Judge Ohta granted the petition.

Ohta ruled that the government violated Aviles Perez’s Fifth Amendment due-process rights by holding him for five months without first making an individualized determination about whether he posed a danger to the public or a flight risk.

“The government has offered no evidence that it detained him after considering those facts and making an individualized determination of his danger to the public or flight risk,” Ohta wrote.

The judge also barred immigration officials from arresting Aviles Perez again unless he first receives a bond hearing before an immigration judge, according to the federal court docket.

The ruling did not overturn his Salvadoran murder conviction. It did not erase the international warrant. It did not change the brutal details of the killing. Yet the convicted MS-13 member was ordered back onto American streets.

The case is also not Aviles Perez’s first release in California. In 2023, police arrested him after he allegedly swung a machete at a man in Monterey. His criminal history also included arrests involving possession of a controlled substance and petty theft.

California authorities released him under the state’s sanctuary policies, preventing federal immigration officials from immediately taking custody of him. ICE eventually tracked him down again in March.

“ICE arrested this dangerous criminal illegal alien and MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for murder,” DHS said after his capture.

“Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be released from jail after his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft. Releasing this gang member back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk.”

The DHS post about the arrest is available here:

Now, only months after ICE recaptured “The Witch,” another court order has given him another chance to remain in the United States while the immigration process continues.

For critics of sanctuary policies and lax enforcement, the episode shows the consequences of releasing violent offenders instead of holding them for removal. California authorities previously released him. ICE later found him. A federal judge has now ordered his release again over a dispute about the process used to detain him.

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