Overview
- DHS confirmed that Victoria Sorocean was taken into ICE custody in Los Angeles on November 4 and remains detained pending removal action.
- U.S. officials say she was convicted in Moldova in 2013 of premeditated murder with “exceptional cruelty” and received a 17-year sentence before fleeing.
- According to DHS, Sorocean and an accomplice tortured their victim in a Chisinau apartment and threw the person from a ninth-floor window.
- ICE records indicate she was first detained in January 2020, pursued asylum and multiple appeals to delay removal, and was released in 2022.
- DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin condemned the earlier release and pointed to stricter enforcement priorities under President Trump and Secretary Kristi Noem.