Illinois kidnapping victim supports DACA recipients being included in Laken Riley Act

[January 22, 2025]  By Catrina Barker | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – A victim of a 2018 kidnapping says deporting recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who commit violent crimes, is “obviously” something the federal government should do.

Gabriel Calixto was granted DACA status at age 15, but was supposed to be deported after serving time for kidnapping Katie O'Brien.

"He got out for good behavior and he was actually working with [Illinois U.S. Sen.] Dick Durbin while he was in prison,” said O’Brien. “For me theft, it's neither here nor there. You shouldn't steal, but you're not hurting anyone specifically. But violent crimes like domestic violence, sexual violence, kidnapping, murder, those things. I think definitely [deport DACA recipients], like, why would we want those kinds of people in our country?”

Durbin, D-IL, filed two amendments to the Laken Riley Act to exempt DACA recipients, but the act passed the Senate without the Durbin amendments.

The act now goes back to the House for reconciliation.

“The loss of a child is something no parent should have to endure, and we should do everything possible to make sure what happened to Laken Riley never happens again,” Durbin said in a news release. “But as I have said numerous times, this bill will not accomplish its stated goal. I’m genuinely disappointed in the passage of this bill as it stands and deeply concerned about how it will be implemented.”

Opponents of the Laken Riley Act say it requires Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain a “dreamer” arrested for shoplifting candy the same as an adult convicted of child abuse.

Laken Riley, whom the bill is named after, was a 22-year-old student at a Georgia university. Riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant in February 2023. The issue became a flashpoint for the 2024 election where Donald Trump beat Vice President Kamala Harris.

O'Brien said she would have felt “safer” had Calixto been deported.

"I was told after he went through trial [in 2018] and served his sentence that he should go back up against ICE for deportation. I don't know what happened. Nobody knows why he was let out when he was, nobody can tell us why he never went up against ICE again,” O’Brien said. “So there's just a lot of question marks that it seems like several things didn't happen like they were supposed to that led to the murder [of Emma Shafer].”

Calixto was released from the Illinois Department of Correction in 2020, and in 2023 allegedly stabbed a woman from Springfield. According to federal authorities, Calixto is believed to have fled to Mexico.

Durbin has not explained the photograph of he and Calixto that Calixto shared to social media and captioned: “Thanks for all you do for the immigrant community.”

O'Brien explained how she broke up with Calixto and he later took her to a motel where he stored a noose and knife and held her prisoner.

“Against me and against Emma, both of them were like crimes of passion,” she said. “They were premeditated. I don't think he would come after me again, since it's been so long. But that being said, after the murder for several weeks, definitely on the edge of my seat, because once you've murdered, what do you have to lose?”

O'Brien said she thinks Calixto avoided deportation and was released from prison early because he had “connections.”

"His family always paid with everything in cash, which I feel like if you can pay for your house in cash, and you don't have an income that makes sense. Then he got out and nobody can say why he got out [of prison] and then managed to flee [after allegedly stabbing Shafer], even though there was a tip within hours of the murder,” O’Brien said. “I feel like we're in a day and age where there's a way to trace everyone. So how couldn't we trace him?”

O'Brien said after Shafer’s 2023 murder, her family contacted authorities several times to see if he’d been arrested. Eventually the family stopped inquiring. O’Brien also criticized the media for their lack of coverage.

“I feel like even though I was seeing a couple things on it, it was still, for being a murderer and not finding the murderer, nobody was really talking about it,” said O’Brien.