Former Illinois Teacher, Living in U.S. Illegally, Arrested Over Ties to Deadly Tren de Aragua Shooting

A 32-year-old Venezuelan woman who worked as a teacher in Illinois has been taken into ICE custody after federal authorities tied her to a fatal 2024 gang shooting in Chicago.

Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti on May 13, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Occhipinti entered the U.S. in October 2021 under the Visa Waiver Program and was supposed to leave by January 2, 2022, but overstayed her visa. She also holds Italian citizenship.

Authorities say that on the night of a December 2, 2024 shooting at a Chicago house party, she drove two gunmen — Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno — to the scene, where three people were killed and five others were injured. Investigators believe she also helped the two men evade law enforcement afterward, and police reportedly found multiple weapons in her vehicle following the attack.

Chicago police arrested Occhipinti on December 5, 2024, on weapons-related charges, but she was released after the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office declined to prosecute. Because of Chicago’s sanctuary policies, local authorities did not notify ICE before letting her go. The two alleged shooters were eventually deported, though Martinez Cermeno had been released from ICE custody in January 2025 after a judge ruled prosecutors hadn’t met their burden of proof to keep him detained pending trial. Fox News + 3

Five months after her release, HSI Chicago’s Human Trafficking and Smuggling Group took up the case and arrested her.

DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement that Chicago police had arrested Occhipinti shortly after the shooting, but “sanctuary politicians released her from jail without notifying ICE,” adding that the department was “doing the job that sanctuary politicians in Illinois refuse to do.” HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Matthew Scarpino called her actions “calculated and deliberate, leading to the loss of three lives.”

Fox 32 Chicago reported that DHS said Occhipinti had taught at an unnamed school in the Chicago suburb of Elgin. The case has renewed debate over sanctuary-city policies and their intersection with immigration enforcement. FOX 32 Chicago