Inocente Orlando Montano

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Vetting Year
Time from U.S. Entry to Discovery
17 years*
National Security Crime Type
Human Rights violations-related
Nationality of Perpetrator
Salvadoran
Immigration Status Type
Temporary Protected Status renewed seven times
Agency Responsible for Failure
USCIS for Temporary Protected Status and seven renewals
Opportunities Missed
1
Nation(s) Vetting Occurred
U.S.
Arresting Agency
ICE-HSI
Criminal Charges
Two counts of falsifying claims on TPS Form 821
Case Outcome
Extradited to Spain in 2017 to face charges by the National Criminal Court of Spain, which convicted him of the Jesuit priest murders
Case Summary

El Salvador national Inocente Orlando Montano served from 1963 to 1994 in the El Salvadoran military, rising to the rank of colonel and then public safety vice minister in 1989 during the civil war, which lasted from 1980 through 1992.

In 1989, he ordered and carried out the internationally notorious murder of five Jesuit priests, as well as a local priest who was present, a housekeeper, and her 16-year-old daughter to eliminate them as witnesses to the war crime. Montano retired in 1994 and, under unclear legal circumstances, moved to the United States and began using his real name, according to court records and media reporting. His immigration status during those years is not known, although he was likely in the country illegally and worked for years in a Massachusetts candy factory.

In 2002, he applied under his real name for Temporary Protected Status, an immigration benefit that prevented deportation of illegally present Salvadorans who claimed they could not return due to natural disaster.

He did so despite the fact that, at the time, his photo and name had been posted in numerous government and public reports as the one who ordered the Jesuit priest killings - publications that were available to American adjudicators at all times. These included a 1990 report in the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus of the U.S. Congress, and a 2004 National Catholic Reporter report, both of which included Montano's name and photographs, an ICE investigator stated in a complaint affidavit.

USCIS processors are supposed to conduct security reviews of TPS applicants looking for disqualifying criminal histories, warrants, national security threat issues and, in the case of Salvadorans at the time, whether they participated in government war crimes. But USCIS granted Montano TPS status despite the public availability of his photo and name as a suspected war criminal.

An even greater issue with TPS security screening is that USCIS approved Montano’s TPS renewal seven more times under his real name, the last time being August 2010.

The following year, a Spanish court indicted Montano and other Salvadoran military officers for the Jesuit priest murders. After being located in Everett, Mass., by the civil rights group the Center for Justice and Accountability, Montano was convicted in 2013 of immigration fraud and perjury for making false statements to immigration officials in order to stay in the United States on the TPS renewals.

He served two years in federal prison in North Carolina. In September 2020, Spain convicted him and sentenced him to 133 years in prison for the crimes.