Another dangerous MS-13 gang member has been released onto American streets by a Biden-appointed federal judge in California.
US District Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered the immediate release of 35-year-old David Antonio Aviles Perez, a Salvadoran illegal alien and convicted MS-13 killer known as “La Bruja,” or “The Witch,” the New York Post reported.
Ohta was nominated by former President Joe Biden in September 2021 and confirmed by the Democrat-controlled Senate later that year.
Aviles Perez entered the United States in December 2013 and remained in the country illegally, according to court records. ICE finally captured him in San Diego on March 26, 2026.
At the time, Aviles Perez was wanted on an international warrant after being convicted in absentia of aggravated murder in El Salvador.
This was no minor offender.
According to El Salvador’s Attorney General’s Office, Aviles Perez and fellow MS-13 member Ismael Enrique Mendoza Flores hunted down a man in La Unión in July 2014.
The gangsters reportedly chased the victim, fired at him as he attempted to escape, and then joined several other thugs who forced the man to stop and kneel.
The MS-13 killers then shot the victim repeatedly in the chest, back, and face before fleeing the scene.
ACTIVIST JUDGE RELEASES MS-13 MURDERER.
David Antonio Aviles Perez, a criminal illegal alien with an international warrant for aggravated murder, was SET FREE by Biden-appointed activist Judge.
Aviles Perez, known as “the witch” back in El Salvador, forced a man to his knees… pic.twitter.com/fni2iYxe3O
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) September 5, 2026
Aviles Perez and Mendoza Flores were each sentenced to 20 years in prison. The convictions were handed down in their absence because the gang members had fled.
But instead of being swiftly removed from the United States and returned to El Salvador to face justice, Aviles Perez petitioned a federal court for his release from ICE custody.
On August 26, Judge Ohta granted his petition and ordered him released immediately.
The judge ruled that the federal government had violated Aviles Perez’s Fifth Amendment due-process rights by detaining him for five months without first providing an individualized determination of whether he posed a danger to the public or was a flight risk.
Ohta acknowledged that Aviles Perez had previously been convicted following a violent confrontation in California, but she claimed the government had not demonstrated that immigration officials considered those facts in an individualized custody determination.
“The government has offered no evidence that it detained him after considering those facts and making an individualized determination of his danger to the public or flight risk,” Ohta wrote.
The Biden judge also barred immigration officials from arresting Aviles Perez again unless he first receives a bond hearing before an immigration judge, according to the federal court docket.
In other words, ICE agents captured a convicted MS-13 killer wanted internationally for a cold-blooded execution—and an activist judge ordered him released over a procedural dispute.
The ruling did not overturn Aviles Perez’s Salvadoran murder conviction.
It did not erase his international warrant.
It did not erase the brutal manner in which his victim was murdered.
Yet he was still ordered back onto American streets.
As The Gateway Pundit previously reported, this was not even the first time Aviles Perez had been released in California.
In 2023, police arrested him after he allegedly swung a machete at a man in Monterey. His criminal history also included arrests involving possession of a controlled substance and petty theft.
California authorities nevertheless released him under the state’s sanctuary policies, preventing federal immigration officials from immediately taking custody of the violent gang member.
ICE eventually tracked him down again in March.
“ICE arrested this dangerous criminal illegal alien and MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for murder,” DHS said following his capture.
“Gavin Newsom’s sanctuary policies allowed this gang member to be released from jail after his arrest for assault with a deadly weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and petty theft. Releasing this gang member back into California neighborhoods put American lives at risk.”
Now, only months after ICE recaptured “The Witch,” another left-wing judge has given him yet another opportunity to disappear.
Sanctuary politicians release them.
ICE arrests them.
Activist judges release them again.
This is total lunacy, and innocent Americans are being forced to live with the consequences.
Ad block users: Some site features may not work correctly while an ad blocker is enabled, because they break scripts and content this website depends on. If you can’t see comments below, for example, please disable your ad blocker.