Wisconsin father accused of fatally stabbing his two children was in US illegally from Mexico

A man accused of fatally stabbing his two children and injuring his wife in a Wisconsin town was living in the United States illegally, Just the News confirmed  Thursday.

Victor Manuel Gomez Acosta has been charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and attempted homicide. His bond is set at $1 million and his first court date is scheduled for July 30.

According to a local news report, investigators arrived at a home on Oak Street in Abbotsford "around 1:40 a.m. on July 5" after a woman went to a nearby relative’s to call 911 reporting she had been stabbed." She told police that was sleeping when the stabbing happened. 

Gomez Acosta was arrested around 2:30 a.m. at his home, court documents said.

Alex Bowman, chief of the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department in Wisconsin, told Just the News that the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Gomez Acosta, originally from Mexico, is living in the country illegally.

Bowman said Gomez Acosta had obtained a 6-month work permit at one point but it expired prior to the killings taking place.

The police department said he was previously arrested for Operating While Intoxicated/Impaired (OWI) by an outside jurisdiction and arrested for another OWI offense in Colby-Abbotsford.

Bowman said this case is the latest of many instances of an illegal immigrant committing crimes in his jurisdiction. He told Just the News that after 2020, it has been virtually impossible to get Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to take custody of an illegal immigrant who commits a crime and comes in contact with local law enforcement.  

"Prior to 2020, it was a lot easier to work with ICE and immigration and now their hands are tied on a lot of things," he said. "I can tell you that even felons we've arrested for felony crimes and stuff, immigration still hasn't come and gotten them."

After an illegal immigrant serves their sentence for a crime "they are back in society" if federal immigration authorities do not take custody of them, Bowman said.

"I used to see immigration [officials] all the time over here," he said. "Now, I haven't heard from ICE in four years. It's terrible."