Suspect in Pelosi Attack Was in the US Illegally, Officials Say The man who has been identified as a threat to Democratic lawmakers came to the US as an illegal immigrant.
— The man who authorities said threatened House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week was an illegal immigrant, according to U.S. officials.
The suspect, identified as Juan Francisco Lopez-Duphin, a 36-year-old Honduran national, was charged Monday with making threatening speech, which is a felony under federal law, a U.S. official told ABC News.
Lopez-Duphin was scheduled to surrender via border patrol officers at the McAllen, Texas, border patrol facility Tuesday, officials told ABC News. He faces up to three years in prison if he is convicted of the federal felony charge, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, according to a U.S. official.
Lopez-Duphin was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents last week at the Calexico, California, international bridge in Calexico, Texas, after he allegedly made a threat.
Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Lopez-Duphin arrived at the U.S. southern border on June 5, 2018, from the southern Mexican border. The ICE official said the man has a criminal conviction from 2003 for using or possessing fake immigration documents related to fraud, a felony in the United States.
At a Tuesday news briefing, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the man posed a “significant threat to public safety” and that he is being detained in ICE custody pending a hearing in federal court on Wednesday, March 8, according to a statement from ICE.
ICE said Lopez-Duphin is from Honduras and entered the United States illegally.
McAleenan did not disclose Lopez-Duphin’s immigration status in his Tuesday briefing.
Pelosi, the House speaker and Democratic caucus chair, was in the Capitol on Tuesday when a woman in the House chamber confronted her during a House Democratic Caucus meeting and said, “I’m going to get you for this,” according to a source with direct knowledge of the conversation
