During a rally in Albuquerque on Oct 31, former president Donald Trump falsely claimed that a man accused of beheading another in Las Cruces was in the U.S. illegally, repeating a false claim fabricated by a right-wing media outlet shortly after the 2021 incident.
The falsehood concerns the case against Joel Arciniega-Saenz, a U.S. citizen, who police accused of killing 51-year-old James Garcia at Apodaca Park in 2021.
“They come from Venezuela, they come from the Congo. And they’re stealing countless American lives in Las Cruces, Mexico,” Trump said, omitting the word “New” in the state’s name. “And they’re arrested and released from jail on an unsecured bond; what is an unsecured bond?”
Trump mused on the phrase – referring to a bond that a defendant only must repay if they’re found to have violated their conditions of release – before adding, “was charged with decapitating a man, mutilating his body and kicking his head around like a soccer ball in a public park.”
For the most part, Trump correctly recounted the case’s goriest details.
However, he did not mention the fact the Las Cruces police believed that Arciniega-Saenz knew Garcia and believed Garcia had sexually assaulted Arciniega-Saenz' girlfriend. Police said in the affidavit that they had no reason to think the girlfriend existed.
As Trump said, Arciniega-Saenz was also out of jail on an unsecured bond at the time of the beheading. In that case, police had accused Arciniega-Saenz of breaking into a coffee shop in Las Cruces, trashing the place and inscribing a homophobic slur on the food counter.
Like all defendants in New Mexico, Arciniega-Saenz was entitled to be released from jail as the coffee shop case progressed. And indeed, a magistrate judge in 2021 allowed him to leave jail on a $2,000 unsecured bond.
While out of jail and on bond in this case, police found him at Apodaca Park, covered in blood and confessing to the killing.
Since his arrest, Arciniega-Saenz has remained in jail and undergone multiple competency evaluations. Those records are sealed, so it's unclear whether he's been found incompetent to stand trial.
However, he is set for a trial date in March 2025. Court records indicate that his defense may argue that Arciniega-Saenz is insane and cannot be guilty of murder.
After the killing at Apodaca Park, the right-wing media website Breitbart published an article entitled “Illegal Alien Out of Jail on Bail Accused of Beheading Man, Playing ‘Soccer with his head.’”
The article mostly cited local news, adding, “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seemingly confirmed to Breitbart News that Arciniega-Saenz is an illegal alien in the United States with an ICE detainer on him, requesting that local authorities do not release him from jail until they can assume custody,” but provided nothing to suggest this was true.
The Las Cruces Bulletin confirmed on Oct. 31 that Arciniega-Saenz is, in fact, a U.S. citizen and has been all his life. Statements made in court over the last three years by his lawyers and prosecutors, the fact that no deportation process has ever been initiated despite Arciniega-Saenz's long criminal history, and the existence of his driver’s license number, his Social Security number, and his birth certificate all point to the fact that Arciniega-Saenz is a U.S. citizen.