The shooting death of Kristie Thibodeaux first made headlines because it happened in the French Quarter, New Orleans’ oldest neighborhood and a place where residents of historic homes and owners of restaurants and clubs that rely on tourists have long worried about recurring violent crime.
Then came the news that one of the three suspects in the armed robbery and shooting of the 43-year-old tour guide was a minor with a criminal record and a malfunctioning ankle monitor. And then the revelation that another was a 19-year-old Honduran who had been in the country illegally since at least 2019.
“This man should never have been in Louisiana. Enough is enough,” Governor Jeff Landrya Republican, said this on X shortly after the suspect’s immigration status became public.
Republicans in Louisiana have tried to blame President Joe Biden and his immigration policybut the Honduran charged in the case was first arrested by U.S. immigration authorities at the Texas border when Donald Trump was president. And the case exposed other failings in the justice system, in addition to border policy.
The broken ankle bracelet left the 15-year-old on the streets, and that failure has led to bipartisan calls for reform of the state’s juvenile justice system. Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican ally of Landry, has ordered an investigation into the juvenile court’s ankle bracelet contracts.
One of the suspects was a 17-year-old juvenile. The killing comes at a time when cities across the U.S. are struggling with juvenile delinquents who have easy access to guns and are committing violence and robberies.
Thibodeaux was shot to death as she sat in her car in the French Quarter early on the morning of June 30. Police say the suspects in her death had committed a string of robberies.
Brian Cain, owner of the tour company Crawl New Orleans, said Thibodeaux was one of his longest-serving employees: a lively, caring colleague who was beloved by coworkers and the tourists she served.
As the Republican National Convention approaches, crimes committed by immigrants have contributed to the Trump’s political rhetoricTrump claims that the influx of immigrants is causing an increase in crime in the US, even though statistics show that violent crime is actually decreasing.
Conservatives are pointing to other recent killings in Texas and Georgia to make their point about borderline failures during the Biden administration. In February, Laken Hoop Rileya 22-year-old nursing student, was attacked and killed near jogging trails on the University of Georgia campus. The suspect is a Venezuelan citizen who immigration officials say entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and was allowed to remain. In Houston, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was strangled and found in a creek last month. Authorities have charged two Venezuelan men who entered the country illegally.
FBI statistics do not differentiate crimes based on the immigration status of the attacker. Nor is there evidence of an increase in migrant crime, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities with the largest influx of migrants, such as New York. Research has shown that people living in the country illegally are less likely than native-born Americans to be arrested for violent, drug, or property crimes.
Immigration officials in New Orleans say it’s not clear when, where or how Joshua Aviala-Bonifacio entered the country. He is a Honduran citizen and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office says he was first encountered by Border Patrol near Hidalgo, Texas, when he was 15 in May 2019.
He was released on May 14, 2019, on an order of recognizance, ICE said, and later ended up in the New Orleans area, where he has an arrest history.
“Bonifacio has been arrested multiple times for theft and contributing to juvenile delinquency,” an ICE statement said. “Since February 2024, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office has arrested Bonifacio for five local offenses.”
Now he is charged with Thibodeaux’s murder.
Cain sees several reasons why he is dissatisfied with government agencies at the state, local and federal levels and the circumstances that led to the suspects ending up on the streets.
“If he is in the country illegally, then he should not be here. But the most important thing is how the local system failed time and time again, not only by leaving him on the streets, but also by not detecting that he was in fact here illegally.”