The father of a 15-year-old girl from New York, who was a victim of a brutal MS-13 attack in 2016, is now speaking up against the lenient plea deal offered to the gang leader responsible for orchestrating her murder and six other killings. This deal was struck by federal prosecutors shortly before President Biden’s term ended.
Expressing his dissatisfaction, Robert Mickens, the father of the victim, voiced his disapproval of the deal, stating, “No one involved in taking a life should be granted such a plea deal. It is yet another grave error committed by our current President Biden, although sadly, I am not surprised. This decision adds insult to injury for my family and others who will forever carry the burden of knowing that the individual behind this heinous act was allowed to plea bargain.”
One of the individuals suspected in the killing of Mickens’ daughter, 28-year-old Jairo Saenz, was unexpectedly offered a deal that shields him from facing the death penalty or spending life in prison, thanks to the directives of former Attorney General Merrick Garland under the Biden administration.
Days later, additional members of the gang received similar deals in another racketeering case that involved nine murder victims.
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Elizabeth Alvarado, alongside Robert Mickens, whose daughter was killed by MS-13 gang members, during a roundtable discussion on immigration at Morrelly Homeland Security Center in Bethpage, New York, May 23, 2018. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
The Sailors would regularly drive around looking for rivals to kill, then lure or ambush them, according to federal prosecutors.
The slaughter got so bad on Long Island that during President Trump’s first term, he visited in person to meet with the families of Cuevas, Mickens and other victims and enlisted then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an effort to take the gang off the streets, which he said was using immigration “loopholes” to bring members into the U.S.
The federal crackdown at the time led to thousands of deportations of its members. Saenz and his group were held to face justice, and former Attorney General Bill Barr’s office would later announce it was seeking the death penalty. Trump invited Mickens and Ceuvas’ parents to attend a State of the Union address.
In 2023, then-U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace told the judge that Garland had directed him to stop pursuing the death penalty. Peace stepped down Friday and has been succeeded by acting U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny, who is expected to hold the post until Trump-nominated Joseph Nocella Jr. is confirmed.
Trump has vowed to not only end Biden’s moratorium on capital punishment, but also to expand the list of crimes that can be punishable with execution to include child rape, human trafficking and the murder of U.S. citizens by illegal immigrants. Thirteen federal inmates were executed during Trump’s first term, the most under any president in decades, but Biden halted executions after taking office in 2021.
“I’m pretty sure our President Trump will look into this and make the right decision,” Mickens said Friday. “Democrats didn’t care when my daughter passed away. They didn’t show any respect in 2018 at the State of the Union, by not standing up when we were being honored, and now they don’t give us families the due respect we deserve by giving him a plea deal.”
