By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A federal judge in Ohio has rejected a request by an attorney representing an illegal immigrant who has been indicted for illegal possession of firearms that he has the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment, Fox News reported.
In a story making national headlines, Carlos Serrano-Restrepo, who has reportedly been in this country illegally since 2008, had an estimated 170 guns in his home in Ohio when agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives searched his home after he purchased “at least 22 firearms” while claiming to be a U.S. citizen when he filled out the 4473 federal forms, according to published reports. The story reached all the way to Seattle, where KOMO News reported the ATF search also uncovered “thousands of rounds of ammunition.” Among the guns seized was a .50-calibrer Barret rifle.
Many of the guns were kept in safes, although one report said several handguns were “mounted in holsters on the wall of a closet.”
Serrano-Restrepo is scheduled to go on trial in January.
According to a report on the case in Law and Crime, U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus wrote in his ruling, “Disarming unlawful immigrants like Mr. Serrano-Restrepo … comports with the Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulations.”
There is much more in the 16-page ruling. Serrano-Restrepo allegedly claimed dual citizenship, had a Washington State driver’s license, then an Ohio driver’s license. He was able to purchase several different guns in the Buckeye State.
The document explains how Serrano-Restrepo lived for years in this country without interacting with law enforcement. He co-founded a business in 2017 with a partner and subsequently bought out that partner. The business was known as Valda Service Corporation. In 2022 he moved from Arizona to Ohio, and two months later he applied for asylum in the U.S. That application is still pending, the judge noted.
Published reports say Serrano-Restrepo pays taxes as a business owner and has a Social Security number.E Repprt He amassed the firearms allegedly for self-defense and because he is a collector.
