Trump Uses Shocking Dallas Decapitation as Fuel for Anti-Immigrant Rant

One of the most grisly deaths in Dallas’ recent memory has caught the attention of President Donald Trump.

Sunday night, Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social to discuss the beheading of a Dallas motel manager that took place last week. According to the Dallas Police Department, on the morning of Sept. 10, a disagreement between the motel’s manager, 50-year-old Chandra Nagamallaiah, and a motel employee, 37-year-old Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, ended when Cobos-Martinez attacked Nagamallaiah with a machete.

Witnesses to the incident told police that Nagamallaiah’s wife and son attempted to intervene several times during the attack but were pushed away by Cobos-Martinez. According to an arrest affidavit, Nagamallaiah's head "was removed from his body” during the assault, and Cobos-Martinez “kicked the head twice into the parking lot and proceeded to pick it up and carry it to the dumpster.”

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Cobos-Martinez is an undocumented immigrant from Cuba who has been previously arrested in Florida and Houston. CBS News reports the man was charged with two counts of auto theft, as well as indecency with a child and assault, before coming to Dallas.


In his social media message, Trump seized on the man’s immigration status. The messaging is consistent with the president’s hardline deportation plan that Trump claims is aimed at violent criminals living in the United States illegally, but which immigration advocates say is resulting in the arrests and deportations of many individuals who do not have criminal records.

“Rest assured, the time for being soft on these Illegal Immigrant Criminals is OVER under my watch!​​” Trump wrote. “[Members of the administration] are doing an incredible job in MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”

Trump described Nagamallaiah, an immigrant from India, as a “well-respected person in Dallas.”

Earlier this year, Cobos-Martinez was in ICE custody at the Bluebonnet Detention Center but was released on Jan. 13 under an order of supervision because “Cuba would not accept him because of his criminal history,” DHS said in a statement. While the release happened in the final week of President Joe Biden’s administration, Trump pointed to the discharge as an example of his predecessors’ “incompetent” handling of immigration policy.

“This criminal, who we have in custody, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. He will be charged with murder in the first degree!” Trump wrote.

According to DHS, ICE has placed an immigration detainer on Cobos-Martinez, who is being held at the Dallas County Jail.