A known gang member, I should stress. His gang affiliation was already flagged in a federal database when he applied for amnesty under Obama’s 2012 DACA action for DREAMers. Immigration officials are supposed to check that database before granting the application. Emphasis on “supposed to.”

Two years later, four people in North Carolina are dead, including a former contestant on “Top Model.” How was this guy allowed to stay, Chuck Grassley asked DHS? DHS’s reply: Oops.

The Background Check Unit should have noticed the TECS record and denied Rangel-Hernandez’s amnesty petition. It didn’t, for reasons that are unclear. According to CIS, 49 people out of the more than 886,000 cases approved for DACA relief were either known gang members when they applied or their affiliation became known during or after their applications were approved. Those cases are now under review. Just last month, ICE conducted a national sweep and arrested 15 more especially dangerous illegals who were permitted to stay in the U.S. under DACA despite having been convicted of a crime at least once. Whether all of those 15 are among the 49 noted by DHS is unclear, but it seems likely: Chuck Grassley first started making noise about Rangel-Hernandez and DACA in late February, after he was charged with the “Top Model” murder. That was ICE’s cue to hit the streets in March and round up any other future murderers they might have greenlit for amnesty. Another case like this and the political heat on Obama and DACA will turn way up.

DHS claims that 282 applicants had their DACA applications rejected for suspected gang or other criminal activity, but that’s only a guesstimate because, inexplicably, they don’t keep electronic records of the reason for rejecting each application. Needless to say, not all criminal affiliations will be so well known to authorities that they’ll make their way into a federal database. But even when the feds have reason to worry, it’s not always a dealbreaker for amnesty (for adults, at least): Releasing illegals with criminal records back onto America’s streets is par for the course. Exit question: Out of a population of more than 662,000 people approved for DACA so far, fewer than 350 (i.e. 282 rejected and 49 wrongfully approved) have suspected criminal affiliations?