A 28-year-old Haitian man now charged with murdering his aunt in Lee County, Florida, illegally entered the country through the same state in 2024, and the Biden administration let him stay.
Whycliff Longin faces charges of murder, attempted murder, sexual battery, and burglary involving battery after the Lee County Sheriff's Office arrested him this month at a residential duplex next door to the home where his aunt, Amadette Longin, was found dead. Department of Homeland Security officials revealed that Longin had crossed into the United States illegally through Florida in 2024, and that despite his unlawful entry, the Biden administration released him into the country's interior.
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin did not hold back. In a statement issued Wednesday, Mullin tied the killing directly to the prior administration's border policies and announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had lodged a detainer on Longin to prevent his release from local custody.
Mullin's statement laid responsibility squarely on the decision to release Longin after he entered the country illegally. Breitbart News reported the secretary's full remarks:
"This dangerous illegal alien should have never been allowed into our country in the first place."
Mullin went further, drawing a direct line between the Biden administration's handling of Longin's case and the death of a woman who had, by family accounts, opened her home to her nephew.
"If it weren't for the Biden administration's reckless open-border policies, Amadette Longin would still be alive."
He added that ICE would coordinate with Florida law enforcement to ensure Longin never walks free again.
"ICE has lodged a detainer and will work with our partners in Florida to make sure this killer is never released onto our streets ever again."
Mullin's use of the word "killer" is notable, Longin has been charged but not convicted. But the secretary's broader point stands on its own terms: a man who should not have been in the country at all is now accused of taking a life in it.
The alleged crimes extend beyond the murder charge. Longin's unnamed cousin told police she woke up to find him strangling her. She said she managed to break free from his grip and barricaded herself in the residence's bathroom. Officers later found Amadette Longin dead at the same home.
Longin was not far. Deputies located and arrested him at the duplex next door to the crime scene. He remains in Lee County custody. The case bears a grim resemblance to other recent incidents in which illegal immigrants released by authorities went on to commit violent crimes.
Family members told police that Amadette Longin had given Whycliff a place to stay, an act of generosity that, if the charges hold, cost her everything.
The specific mechanism of Amadette's death has not been publicly detailed. Nor has a motive been disclosed. The sexual battery charge adds another layer of severity to a case already carrying the weight of a murder count, but the circumstances surrounding that charge have not been described in available reporting.
Longin now faces four felony charges: murder, attempted murder, sexual battery, and burglary involving battery. No bond information or hearing date has been made public. It is unclear whether Longin has retained or been appointed legal counsel.
DHS officials have not specified the legal or administrative mechanism the Biden administration used to release Longin after his illegal entry. Whether he was paroled, processed through a catch-and-release protocol, or freed under some other program remains unanswered. That gap matters. A Biden-era White House memo laid the groundwork to shield millions of noncitizens from deportation, and the administrative choices that led to Longin's release fit a pattern of policy decisions that prioritized processing volume over public safety.
The ICE detainer ensures that even if Longin were somehow granted bail on the state charges, federal authorities would seek to hold him. Under the current administration, that detainer carries real weight. Under the prior one, detainers were routinely ignored by sympathetic local jurisdictions, though Lee County, in southwest Florida, was not among the usual offenders.
The case is far from isolated. In Florida alone, two illegal immigrants were recently charged in the murder of a Marine veteran and father of two. Across the country, headlines have tracked a steady procession of violent crimes allegedly committed by individuals who entered the country unlawfully and were released rather than removed.
The timeline is damning on its own. Longin entered the United States illegally through Florida in 2024. Rather than detain or deport him, the Biden administration released him. Two years later, a woman who took him in is dead, and her daughter, or another female relative, barely survived.
No policy paper, no bureaucratic memo, no talking point about "processing capacity" answers the question Mullin's statement poses by implication: why was this man free?
Elsewhere, the consequences of similar release decisions have continued to mount. An illegal immigrant trucker who killed three people on a California highway received less than five years in prison. ICE agents have had to track down and re-arrest illegal immigrants convicted of violent crimes, including child rape, who were already in the country because earlier enforcement decisions failed.
Each case follows the same pattern: an illegal immigrant enters the country, the system releases him, and someone who had every right to feel safe in her own home pays the price.
Amadette Longin opened her door to family. The Biden administration opened the border to the man accused of killing her. Only one of those decisions was a crime, but both had consequences, and only one person is being held accountable.