The man police have charged with using a sledgehammer to decapitate the Iwo Jima memorial statue at Quantico is an illegal immigrant, the Department of Homeland Security said Friday.
Miguel Alonso Maldonado Soriano, a Mexican citizen, was charged with felony destruction of property, felony injury of a monument and trespassing to damage property in connection with Wednesday’s attack on the statue at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said his department has confirmed the man was granted an amnesty from deportation in 2014 under the Obama-era DACA program, which protected illegal immigrant “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. as children.
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His DACA status was renewed in the years since then, including most recently by the Biden administration, but has “since expired,” DHS said.
Mr. Mullin called the man a “hateful illegal alien.”
“Criminals like this who clearly hate America have no business being in our country. We must never allow the history of our great nation to be torn down by illegal aliens who have zero respect for our country and our values,” the secretary said.
The battered Iwo Jima statue is a version of Arlington’s more famous memorial, which depicts the dramatic flag-raising over the Japanese island that was the scene of intense fighting during World War II.
Prince William County police said when officers arrived at the scene after 10 p.m. Wednesday, Mr. Maldonado Soriano, 27, was still slamming the statue with the sledgehammer.
A head had already been bashed off one of the Marines in the statue.
County police said the damage would total hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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