Jones previously blamed U.S. immigration policy under former Democratic President Barack Obama for the slayings of two Northern California deputies in 2014 by a man who was in the country illegally. The accusation became the subject of an ad by former President Donald Trump in 2018.
Jones ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for Congress in 2016 and is again running for Congress.
Grisel Ruiz, supervising attorney for the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said gun control and domestic violence appear to be the central issues in the killings, while immigration status had no bearing.
“Regretfully, we’ve seen tragic incidents politicized in the past, resulting in misguided policies targeting immigrants, which in turn make it harder for immigrant survivors to actually get the help that they need,” she said.
The weekly visitation was allowed under terms of a five-year restraining order obtained by Mora’s ex-girlfriend, who was the mother of the girls. The order said he had repeatedly threatened to kill her, scared their girls and said he would kill himself.
In a response to a court filing for the order, Mora said he had no guns. His ex-girlfriend also said she was not aware of him having firearms.
It is not clear whether Mora, also known as David Fidel Mora Rojas, faced a significant danger of being deported despite immigration officials’ interest after his arrest. Although ICE had asked to be notified of Mora’s release, immigration officials did not take any additional steps to deport him after he was released on bail.
Under Democratic President Joe Biden, immigration officials put their priority for deportation on people whom they deem threats to public safety or national security or who recently crossed the border. That’s a departure from the Trump administration, which sought anyone in the country illegally for deportation.
This article originally appeared on APNews.com.
