Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks to employees at the Department of Homeland Security, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Washington, U.S.
Manuel Balce Ceneta | Via Reuters
Threatening letters about President Donald Trump that led to the highly-touted arrest by federal authorities of an undocumented immigrant last month were actually written by a jailed Wisconsin man trying to get him deported, prosecutors said in a new criminal complaint.
Demetric DeShawn Scott, the inmate, hoped to get Mexican immigrant Ramon Morales-Reyes deported because he is a witness in Scott’s upcoming criminal trial for alleged armed robbery and battery against Morales-Reyes, a criminal complaint filed Monday says.
“I got a plan. I got a hell of a plan,” Scott, 52, said in a recorded call from jail on April 27, according to the criminal complaint.
And in a May 16 recorded call, Scott, referring to Morales-Reyes, said, “This dude is a goddamn illegal immigrant and they just need to pick his ass up.”
“I’m dead serious cause I got Jury Trial on July 15th,” the complaint said. “And the judge will agree cause if he gets picked up by ICE, there won’t be a Jury Trial so they will probably dismiss it that day. That’s my plan.”
Scott is now charged in Milwaukee Circuit Court with identity theft and felony intimidation of a witness, and bail jumping in connection with the alleged scam. CNBC has requested comment from his attorney
But Morales-Reyes, a 54-year-old married father of three who works as a dishwasher, remains in custody because he was in the United States illegally, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
He faces an appearance before an immigration judge on Wednesday and the possibility of removal from the United States.
ICE arrested Ramon Morales-Reyes, a 54-year-old from Mexico on May 22, 2025.
Courtesy: U.S. Homeland Security
A senior DHS official, in a statement to CNBC when asked about Morales-Reyes, said, “The investigation into the threat is ongoing.”
“Over the course of the investigation, this individual was determined to be in the country illegally and that he had a criminal record,” the official said. “He will remain in custody.”
DHS last month said that Morales-Reyes “entered the U.S. illegally at least nine times between 1998-2005.”
“His criminal record includes arrests for felony hit-and-run, criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct with a domestic abuse modifier,” the department said at the time.
A lawyer for Morales-Reyes, Kime Abduli, told CNBC that he recently applied for a U visa, which is available for people in the U.S. illegally who are the victims of certain crimes.
Abduli said Morales-Reyes was attacked with a box cutter by a man whom he later identified as Scott in 2023, and that he cooperated with authorities in their investigation.
Abduli said she and another lawyer for him are “putting in all efforts we can to get him out” of immigration detention.
“Honestly, it’s kind of been a whirlwind the past few days,” she said. “It’s been a lot to process. It’s just unfortunate that this has spun to the level it has and that Mr. Morales has been dragged into the limelight in this way, but I just hope that justice prevails. It’s been hard for him and his family.”
The immigrant was arrested outside a Milwaukee school on May 22 after dropping off his daughter, who, like his other two children, is a U.S. citizen, according to Abduli.
“Thanks to our ICE officers, this illegal alien who threatened to assassinate President Trump is behind bars,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Krist Noem said in a May 28 statement announcing his arrest.
The bust came a day after the Wisconsin Attorney General’s Office, the police chief of Milwaukee, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office in that city all received mailed handwritten letters in envelopes with the return address of Morales-Reyes, the complaint says.
“The letters were all handwritten and, although not exactly the same, all wrote about immigration policy and threatening to kill ICE agents or President Donald Trump,” the filing says.
“Those letters also appeared to be written by the same person.”
The complaint quotes excerpts of the letters, which were written in English.
“That interview was conducted using translation assistance, as RM-R does not read, write, or fluently speak English,” the complaint said.
“During that interview, law enforcement asked RM-R who would want to get RM-R in trouble. RM-R stated that the only person who would want to get him in [trouble] was the person who had robbed him and who law enforcement knows to be the defendant, Demetric D. Scott.”
The complaint said the detective had Morales-Reyes write a handwritten note, which showed “completely different handwriting than what is on the letters and envelopes.”
After speaking with Morales-Reyes, law enforcement listened to recordings of several calls from the Milwaukee County Jail that were made by Scott.
In an April 27 call, Scott told another person to tell a third person that he was going to send two letters to her hours, and “I need Carmella to mail off for me.”
In another call on the same day, Scott talked about having sent “a big manila envelope” to his mother’s house.
“I just need you to put them in the mailbox for me,” Scott said, according to the criminal complaint. “I just need them to be mailed out from the street and not from here.”
In a call on May 1, using another inmate’s ID number, Scott told the person on the other end of the line to write down a number, which was for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement tip line, and “call this number for me,” the filings said.
On May 11, Scott had a call in which he said, “I’ll probably get out this motherf—– July 15,” which is the date of his scheduled trial for allegedly robbing Morales-Reyes, according to the complaint.
“Dude don’t come to court then they gonna have to dismiss my case,” Scott said. “Listen, I need, um, an address. I need for someone to go google, uh, um, um, uh, Department of Justice, the Attorney General. I need the Attorney General address in the state of Wisconsin. Do you know how to do that?
Last Friday, a Milwaukee police detective interviewed Scott, who “admitted that he wrote everything on the letters and envelopes himself. He stated that the letters were made without the assistance of anyone,” the complaint said.
“When asked what was going through his head at the time of writing the letters, the defendant stated ‘Freedom,’ ” the complaint said.
“The defendant admitted that his intention was not to go after President Trump, rather, to prevent RM-R from testifying at his trial,” the complaint said.
“The defendant stated that he knew that including a threat to President Trump in the letters would mean that Secret Service would have to get involved and law enforcement would definitely go to RM-R’s house.”
Scott, shortly after that interview, called his mother from jail, according to the complaint.
“The detective was like, ‘Well, whatever your plan was, it worked he said, cause he got deported now because we had to go pick him up,’ ” Scott told his mother, the complaint said.
“Out of all the time I’ve been in here, 19 months, his ass got what he deserve,” Scott said.
“He got deported the way he should’ve because he wasn’t supposed to be here anyway, so he can take his ass back to Mexico. He took 19 months away from me and probably longer than that.”
