ICE Deports Honduran Woman Convicted of Attempting to Kill Newborn on Long Island

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported a Honduran woman convicted of trying to kill her newborn baby on Long Island, New York, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Soili Xiomara Aparicio-Santos, 41, entered the country illegally in 2014. She had a final order of removal that year. ICE removed her from New York in April after she served eight years of a prison sentence for the crime.

In 2017, Aparicio-Santos lived in Centereach in Suffolk County. She tried to smother her baby boy with a pillow the day he was born, according to Daily Voice. A family member saw her and called police. The child escaped serious injury and entered foster care.

Suffolk County police arrested her that year for first-degree reckless endangerment. ICE issued an immigration detainer then and again in 2018 while she served her sentence.

Aparicio-Santos was convicted in 2018 of second-degree attempted murder, first- and second-degree attempted assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. She received an original sentence of 16 years, reduced to 10. Local authorities notified ICE before her release, and federal agents took her into custody.

DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis praised Long Island law enforcement for the cooperation. "Thanks to cooperation by law enforcement and our ICE officers, this barbaric criminal is out of our country," she said in a DHS release. "This monster attempted to KILL her own child the day he was born."

Bis criticized the Obama administration for releasing her into the country. She said DHS needs help from state and local officials to remove such criminals. "Together, we can make America safe again."

Suffolk and Nassau counties, both majority Republican, cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, unlike New York City. Suffolk faces a $112 million federal jury verdict for holding inmates to honor ICE detainers in violation of constitutional rights. County Attorney Thomas Dewey called the award "preposterous and unjust," the New York Post reported.

DHS said seven of the top 10 safest U.S. cities work with ICE. The agency called such partnerships essential to arrest criminal illegal immigrants nationwide. When local police cannot cooperate, officers must increase patrols to catch criminals released into communities, DHS said.