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DHS Says Missouri Should Not Release Illegal Immigrant Who Killed Teen

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  April 10, 2026 8:30 AM

The Department of Homeland Security is asking authorities in Missouri not to release an illegal immigrant murderer who killed 15-year-old Miles Young. Yefry Archaga-Elvir was released into the nation under the Obama administration. 

"We will never stop fighting to ensure cold-blooded murderers like Archaga-Elvir are never released back into our communities," DHS wrote on X.

Archaga-Elvir reportedly lured Young to a meeting, where Young believed he was meeting a girl. There, Archaga-Elvir and an accomplice, Praize King, ambushed Young. According to witnesses, Young pleaded for his life and told his killers, "I just don't want to die."

This never should have happened. Archaga-Elvir never should have been in the country.

Missouri does have the death penalty.

Hopefully, Sheriff Arnott of Greene County, Missouri, will continue to honor ICE detainers. He reportedly does.

An X user familiar with the county also said Archaga-Elvir won't be set loose.

The entire post reads:

This is NOT a jurisdiction where judges routinely release defendants charged with violent crimes on small bonds or with no bond at all. It just does not happen.

We are not a blue “progressive” jurisdiction and I know the prosecutors, judge, and even the defense lawyer in this case.

Trust me when I say that the defendant being released is as likely as me being named as a starting pitcher to the STL Cardinals roster.

Furthermore, this jurisdiction already honors ICE holds and will do so here. If the case were to be dismissed tomorrow for some unknown reason, he would be held until ICE picked him up.

How do I know this? Cause it has happened to a client of mine before.

The case number is 2631-CR00676 and you can look all this up on Missouri’s court system website, Casenet.

The defendant is currently being held WITHOUT bond and while I am sure he and his counsel will request a bond to be set, I would bet you almost any amount that request will be denied as he is charged with Murder 1, a capital offense, and the Missouri State Constitution specifically allows for defendants so charged to be held without bond.

The next step is the case will be set for a preliminary hearing, (sometimes referred to as a “probable cause hearing”) where the state would have to put on just enough evidence demonstrating that more likely than not a felony was committed and the defendant committed it.

The burden is the same as if the case had been presented to a grand jury but Greene County does not have a permanent grand jury and thus felony charges are filed via felony complaint in associate circuit court and then set for preliminary hearing.

If the State meets the probable cause burden at the preliminary hearing, the case will be bound over to circuit court to be set for trial.

Missouri State Treasurer Vivek Malek also wrote a lengthy post about this.

"Illegal immigrants are incentivized to come to the United States to profit, whether by selling drugs or taking American jobs. They then send those earnings back home," Malek wrote. "This session, I launched a legislative initiative to make Missouri the first state in the nation to require verification of legal status prior to an international money remittance. Remittance companies that profit from unverified transfers have fought me every step of the way and appear content to allow this scheme to continue. If the flow of money doesn’t stop, neither will these horrendous murders of Americans."