Suspect in park murder has a confusing immigration history

by Joe Conger / KENS 5
Bio | Email | Follow: @joe_congerPosted on January 13, 2014 at 4:40 PM

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SAN ANTONIO -- The I-Team has received new information from immigration officials about Christian Bautista, and how he happened to be in the United States “legally.”

Bautista is charged in the murder of co-ed Lauren Bump, who was found brutally stabbed in O.P. Schnabel Park.

Originally, Bexar County authorities said Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security had placed an immigration detainer on Bautista.

Today, ICE told the I-Team that detainer was a “mistaken hold,” because Bautista was already a U.S. citizen.

ICE confirmed that in 2006, local law enforcement referred Bautista to their agency.

But ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said, “It was later determined that he (Bautista) is a U.S. citizen. Therefore, ICE has no jurisdiction regarding this individual.”

The I-Team has uncovered that originally, Bautista was considered a “legal permanent resident,” because one of his parents was a U.S. citizen.

Christian Bautista was no stranger to law enforcement: according to local, state and federal records, Bautista had been arrested at least seven times as an adult: from drug charges, to criminal mischief, to aggravated assault where he beat a man with a tire iron for his IPod.

And just two months after serving prison time for that crime, he was back in jail—this time accused of stabbing Lauren Bump to death.

Sources within ICE say that sometime between his tire-iron assault and the alleged stabbing death at O.P.Schnabel Park, Bautista successfully received his citizenship.

KENS 5 called officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
They said FBI fingerprint and criminal background checks are mandatory on all individuals prior to allowing resident aliens to take the oath and become citizens.

But what actually happened in Bautista’s case remains unknown, because federal privacy laws prohibit the I-Team from getting any access to Bautista’s immigration case.

http://www.kens5.com/news/local/I-Te...239998081.html