U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said on Monday that illegal immigration is to blame for Friday’s mass shooting in Cleveland that claimed the lives of five people, Spectrum News reported.
Authorities pressed on with their search of the alleged gunman, 38-year-old Francisco Oropesa, at the time the senior senator weighed in on the incident.
“As we saw again this weekend, the administration's policies victimize people who are attacked by dangerous individuals who never should have been in the United States in the first place,” Cornyn said in the report. “How much pain and suffering will our country have to endure before the Biden administration takes this seriously?”
Oropesa is accused of taking the lives of third-grader Daniel Enrique Lazo Guzmán, 21-year-old Diana Velasquez Alvarado, 31-year-old Obdulia Molina Rivera, 25-year-old Sonia Argentina Guzmán Taibot and 18-year-old Josué Jonatan Cáceres with an assault weapon, Houston Daily reported.
Oropesa was supposedly told by one of the adult victims to stop shooting his weapon so she and her family could get some sleep before the shooting took place.
As of press time, he continues to evade authorities.
The suspect is believed to have snuck back into the country after multiple deportations. Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, initially remarked that the victims were illegal immigrants but has since backtracked on his comments, Spectrum News reported.
“We regret if the information was incorrect and detracted from the important goal of finding and arresting the criminal,” Renae Eze, a spokesperson for the Office of the Texas Governor, said, according to the website. “The true focus remains on catching this heinous criminal who killed five innocent people, and bringing the full weight of Texas law against him.”
Former state legislator Matt Rinaldi, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas, pushed back against State Sen. Roland Gutierrez’s (D-San Antonio) insinuations that Abbott politicized the shooting, Spectrum News reported.
“The illegal alien was able to get a gun because policies [the senator] supports allowed him in the country after he was deported multiple times,” Rinaldi said on Twitter.