Mateo Gonzalez was two weeks old.
On May 28, 2026, police responded to a home in Modesto, California, where they found Fabiola Gonzalez-Nunez, 23, and her mother, Maria Silvia Nunez-Villalobos, 54, stabbed to death. The two-week-old baby, Mateo, was rushed to the hospital with stab wounds. He didn't make it. A 3-year-old was also in that house.
Three generations. Gone in a morning.
BABY KILLER: Joaquin Escoto Vazquez, criminal illegal alien from Mexico, has been charged with homicide and cruelty toward child after he fatally STABBED a 2-week-old baby, the baby’s mother, and the baby’s grandmother.@ICEgov had placed a detainer on him after he was arrested… pic.twitter.com/oEBwDkR7vO
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 3, 2026
The suspect, Joaquin Escoto Vazquez, 28, is a Mexican national accused of living in the United States illegally. He didn't slip through a crack in the system. He walked through a door California propped open on purpose.
Vazquez had been arrested four separate times in California for driving under the influence. After his most recent DUI arrest in June 2025, ICE issued an immigration detainer with the San Joaquin County Jail, asking local authorities to hold him and notify federal agents before releasing him.
Standard procedure. A clear, direct request from federal law enforcement.
California said no.
Sanctuary policies led local officials to release Vazquez without notifying ICE, returning him to the community instead of transferring him to federal custody. Less than a year later, a mother, her newborn son, and her mother were dead.
“This monster's heinous crime could have been prevented if sanctuary politicians in California simply cooperated with ICE law enforcement. ICE had placed a detainer on him after he was arrested for driving under the influence in 2025, but California sanctuary politicians chose to release him instead of turning him over to ICE,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said.
Defenders of sanctuary policies will argue that local law enforcement shouldn't do the federal government's job. They say that cooperation with ICE erodes community trust.
It's an argument that might hold some weight in the abstract. It holds none at all when a two-week-old baby has been killed.
Escoto had been deported from the United States three previous times. Four DUI arrests. He had an active ICE detainer.
At what point does California's sanctuary policy become less a matter of principle and more a matter of choosing an ideology over innocent lives?
Governor Newsom has built a national profile on progressive immigration policy. That's his right. But leadership means owning the consequences of your decisions, not just the applause.
Three people are dead in Modesto who didn't have to be. A 3-year-old is in state custody who still had a family last month.
This isn't abstract policy. These were real people with names.
Maria was 54. Fabiola was 23. Mateo was two weeks old. His whole life was two weeks old.
California knew who Joaquin Escoto Vazquez was. The federal government told them. They let him go anyway, and a family paid for that decision with everything they had.
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