Jose Cristian Saravia-Sanchez, Murder, California 2025

LOS ANGELES – A 30-year-old Mexican man has been charged with murder in the shooting death of an Inglewood man who tried to stop him from stealing a catalytic converter. José Cristian Saravia-Sánchez, a known gang member and illegal alien, was arrested after a nationwide manhunt.

The shooting occurred on February 2025, when Saravia-Sánchez was attempting to steal a catalytic converter from a vehicle in Inglewood. The victim, an Inglewood man, tried to stop him, but Saravia-Sánchez pulled out a gun and shot him.

Saravia-Sánchez had been convicted of vehicle theft and had been removed from the United States in 2013. He had also been arrested 11 times between June 2022 and August 2024, but was released each time due to California’s sanctuary state law.

Operation Guardian Angel, a program launched in May 2025, aims to neutralize California’s sanctuary state law and policies, which prevent local law enforcement from honoring administrative warrants from federal immigration authorities requesting that criminal illegal aliens be transferred into federal custody.

Since its launch, Operation Guardian Angel has issued 171 federal arrest warrants for criminal illegal aliens, resulting in 73 arrests at local jails and 5 arrests at county courthouses. The program is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative to repel the invasion of illegal immigration and protect communities from violent crime.

The Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties, is home to an estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens, including gang members and other dangerous felons.

Briant Reyes Estrada, a 27-year-old Mexican man, was also arrested as part of Operation Guardian Angel in connection with the death of his 6-year-old son, who died after being left in a parked car in Paso Robles during a heat wave. Estrada had been arrested two weeks earlier on unrelated state charges but was released from San Luis Obispo County jail and not turned over to United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) pursuant to SB 54, California sanctuary state law.

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