REPORT: ICE confirms suspect in Minnesota beheading is an illegal immigrant

ICE spokesperson Shawn Neudauer told the outlet, "Alexis Saborit-Viltres, 42, is a citizen of Cuba who is unlawfully present in the United States. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has not placed a detainer on Saborit-Viltres following his recent arrest for second-degree murder in Shakopee, Minnesota."

Neudauer also confirmed on Tuesday that Saborit-Viltres’s has an extensive criminal record which included multiple convictions in Lousiana and Minnesota for domestic abuse, DUI, and fleeing from a police officer. Saborit-Viltres also has pending charges for first-degree criminal damage to property, first-degree arson and obstruction of the legal process as a result of a previous arrest.

Neudauer told Alpha News that a Supreme Court decision Zadvydas v. Davis in 2001 limited the amount of time that ICE can detain noncitizens who are subject to a deportation order under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The ruling typically prohibits ICE from holding noncitizens with orders of removal for more than six months.

ICE had previously attempted to deport Saborit-Viltres to Cuba in 2012 but was unable to after the country would not approve the necessary travel documents, which resulted in his release under an order of supervision.

On July 28, Police officers in Shakopee discovered the aftermath of a beheading of a MyPillow employee, 55-year-old American Mafalda Thayer. The Cuban national allegedly used a machete to execute his victim in a car in the middle of a residential intersection. Witnesses watched and filmed the horrific attack as it happened, and purported video footage documenting the grisly murder appeared online.

A search warrant described investigators locating a large knife sheath in a "nearby yard," as well as discovering a knife in a trash can near the area. "The victim’s head was lying next to the body."

Officials believe that the suspect and victim had a pre-existing relationship and that it wasn’t a random act of violence.A coworker told Fox 9 that "the victim had been in a long-term relationship with the suspect and domestic abuse had been a consistent problem."

Saborit-Viltres now faces second-degree intentional murder.