ICE stated Wednesday that an illegal immigrant reportedly broke into Democrat candidate for governor Katie Hobbs’ campaign office last week, despite her apparent attempt to pin it on her Republican opponent Kari Lake.
ICE said last week that Daniel Mota Dos Reis, 36, of Portugal, who entered the U.S. as a registered student in 2018, was apprehended for criminal trespassing and robbery.
According to Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, an ICE public affairs officer, Mota is “presently at-large for administrative immigration offenses for failure to keep his eligibility as a registered student at an academic institution.”
According to witnesses, Mota was observed breaking into at least two separate office spaces.
According to local officials, one of the offices served as Hobbs’ campaign headquarters.
According to court records, Mota got into a fight with cops on October 26. Before being apprehended, the suspect fled from the police officers and shoved a 60-year-old female security officer. Later that same evening, a patrol officer watched media stories about a campaign burglary that had occurred two nights prior, and surveillance had revealed an image of Mota.
On the evening of October 24, Phoenix Police detained Mota yet again for the campaign office burglary.
Hobbs implied after the burglary that Lake or her “allies” had at least encouraged the recent break-in at her campaign headquarters.
Hobbs issued a statement after the burglary, which allegedly occurred at her campaign office in Phoenix and was reported to local authorities last week, in which she stated that she and her staff were working with law enforcement to investigate the crime.
She then claimed that Lake’s words had raised the temperature and pushed her allies toward violence.
“During the course of this campaign, Secretary Hobbs and her team have received hundreds of death threats and threats of violence. We have been clear throughout this campaign that the safety of our team and the Secretary is our top priority,” the campaign statement said, before switching to bash Lake.
“Let’s just be clear: Kari Lake and her supporters have all been spreading harmful falsehoods and instigating threats against whomever they see fit for nearly two years. Threats against Arizonans exercising their constitutional rights, as well as attacks on elected officials, are the direct outcome of a coordinated campaign of misinformation and intimidation,” the statement said.
Lake called the thinly disguised accusation “absurd” and suggested that the break-in might not have occurred at all, as Hobbs’ campaign alleged. “Are you actually buying that?” she inquired, adding, “Since this sounds like a Jussie Smollett sequel.”
Phoenix Police announced Mota’s apprehension last week, saying there was no evidence that Mota’s assault on Hobbs’ campaign headquarters was politically driven or staged.
