Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem introduced the arrest in Mexico Thursday of 27-year-old Gabriel Calixto-Picardo within the brutal stabbing loss of life of his girlfriend, immigrant activist Emma Shafer, 24, that occurred at Shafer’s Springfield, Illinois dwelling on July 11, 2023.
Calixto was dropped at the U.S. by his mom when he was 5 years previous and had DACA standing till he was jailed for kidnapping a earlier girlfriend who says Calixto was later granted asylum after he was launched from jail in 2021 and after his deportation case was dropped due to fears of torture in his native Mexico.
Noem highlighted Shafer’s homicide in a go to to Springfield earlier this 12 months. Noem was denounced by Shafer’s mom, who joined a protest towards Noem and complained she had not given permission for Noem to talk about her daughter.
The vicious unlawful alien assassin who has been evading justice for 2 years after stabbing 24-year-old Emma Shafer has been ARRESTED. We’ll proceed to work with federal authorities to coordinate extradition proceedings.
THANK YOU to our regulation enforcement companions for bringing this perpetrator to justice.
The vicious unlawful alien assassin who has been evading justice for 2 years after stabbing 24-year-old Emma Shafer has been ARRESTED. We’ll proceed to work with federal authorities to coordinate extradition proceedings.
THANK YOU to our regulation enforcement companions for… pic.twitter.com/ur3RBebSlM
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 28, 2025
WAND-TV report on the homicide (excerpt):
In July 2023, police responded to the 1000 block of S. eighth Avenue after a name from a girl saying her brother had injured his girlfriend.
Once they arrived, officers discovered Shafer stabbed to loss of life. A short while later, a warrant was issued for Calixto’s arrest.
NPR Illinois reported on the arrest of Calixto and the background of Shafer (excerpt):
Sangamon County State’s Lawyer John Milhiser, the Springfield Police Division, and the U.S. Marshals Service introduced right this moment that Gabriel P. Calixto, wished in reference to the 2023 homicide of 24-year-old Emma Shafer, has been apprehended in Mexico.
Calixto was indicted by a Sangamon County Grand Jury and is charged with three counts of First-Diploma Homicide and one depend of Aggravated Home Battery.
On July 11, 2023, Springfield Cops responded to a residence within the 1000 block of South eighth Avenue, the place they found Ms. Shafer deceased. Shafer, 24, was discovered useless in her dwelling. The Sangamon County Coroner mentioned Shafer sustained a number of sharp pressure accidents.
Shafer has been described as a younger girl intent on making a distinction. She was the membership chair of the Sierra Membership Sangamon Valley Group, an incoming board member for the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Community, a former organizer with Religion Coalition for the Widespread Good, and an lively volunteer with numerous different neighborhood teams.
The Illinois Eagle described Shafer as being concerned with the Resistor Sisterhood (excerpt):
Shafer was a part of the management council of Resister Sisterhood, a Springfield activist group advocating for progressive causes. She had been lively in work for the LGBTQ neighborhood, preventing for girls’s rights, and bodily autonomy.
Excerpt from Shafer’s obituary:
Emma Marie Shafer, 24, neighborhood organizer, died July 11, 2023. A Springfield native born on April 13, 1999, she graduated from Springfield Excessive Faculty, obtained an Affiliate Diploma in Political Science at Lincoln Land Group Faculty, and earned a Bachelor’s Diploma in City Research from the New Faculty in New York Metropolis. She was the membership chair of the Sierra Membership Sangamon Valley Group, an incoming board member for the Springfield Immigrant Advocacy Community, a former organizer with Religion Coalition for the Widespread Good, and an lively volunteer with numerous different neighborhood teams.
…From early childhood, Emma pursued twin passions — theater and social justice…
…Emma was a life-long activist. Whilst a toddler, she tended to go sit with the child consuming lunch alone and recruit her associates to hitch them. She acknowledged inequities in the best way sure classmates had been handled and spoke as much as ask adults to comprehend the hurt they had been inflicting. As a young person, she participated in a number of youth service initiatives with Westminster Presbyterian Church, equivalent to serving to restore houses for low-income households in Appalachia and later joined the Appalachian Service Mission workers. Emma was very concerned in public workplace, serving as an intern within the workplace of U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, a Fellow within the New York Metropolis Mayor’s Workplace of Immigrant Affairs, and a committee clerk on the State of Illinois Home of Representatives. On the time of her loss of life, she was making particular concoctions and connections at The Wakery. She then had simply been employed to work for M.H. Motion, the place she was wanting ahead to advocating for the rights of people that dwell in manufactured houses.
…Her favourite a part of organizing was canvassing — going door-to-door and assembly folks to listen to and tackle any issues they’d, all the time working in the direction of a extra equitable neighborhood. Held hour-long one-on-one conferences with anybody who had a trigger, often scheduling these conferences at a downtown native enterprise. She hosted weekly “soup evening” gatherings in her dwelling, bringing collectively advocates she believed wanted to know one another.
2023 WAND-TV report on Calixto’s kidnapping of ex-girlfriend Kathryn O’Brien and his immigration standing (excerpt):
(Be aware: there’s a host of data on this article. Please click through for the entire WAND report.)
WAND Information is studying extra in regards to the felony file of Gabriel Calixto Pichardo. Calixto was initially charged with violating an order of safety, aggravated kidnapping and illegal restraint after a 2018 kidnapping incident. Calixto agreed to plea responsible to a kidnapping cost and was sentenced to 6 years in jail.
In 2020, courtroom information present Calixto’s plea was vacated for constitutional causes. He instantly pleaded responsible to a lesser cost, illegal restraint, and was resentenced to 6 years behind bars. Nevertheless, he was launched early.
WAND Information requested the Madison County State’s Lawyer what the constitutional causes had been, to permit Calixto to plea to a lesser felony cost.
State’s Lawyer Thomas Haine launched the next assertion:
“We provide our deepest condolences to the household and family members of Emma Shafer. What transpired right here is deeply disturbing and upsetting. In October 2020, previous to my administration, this defendant’s responsible plea was modified. The rationale for this modification is frustratingly unclear. There was no listening to held on the modification, and there’s no transcript. The employment of the previous assistant state’s lawyer chargeable for this modification terminated in February 2021. My workplace will proceed to help the Sangamon County State’s Lawyer’s Workplace and the opposite authorities in Sangamon County in any method.”
Extra:
…About six months after he was launched within the kidnapping case, Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers arrested Calixto. He was charged with improper entry and the Division of Homeland Safety started elimination proceedings.
Courtroom information present Calixto was born in Mexico and dropped at the U.S. by his mother when he was 5 years previous. He was granted Deferred Motion for Childhood Arrival standing—or DACA—when he was 15. However his standing expired whereas in jail, and he was now not eligible for DACA as a result of he had dedicated a felony.
Courtroom information present U.S. Attorneys in the end declined to prosecute him for improper entry. WAND reached out to be taught why the case was dropped.
“I’m restricted to offering solely the data that’s contained within the publicly-filed courtroom paperwork, and the workplace is not going to be releasing additional remark presently,” a spokeswoman shared in a press release to WAND Information.
Calixto had filed an utility for asylum and safety underneath the Conference In opposition to Torture, based mostly on his concern of hurt in Mexico as a consequence of his extreme psychological sickness. O’Brien informed WAND Information that Calixto was allowed to remain in the US as a result of he was granted this asylum standing.
…Simply two years after Calixto was launched on bond by immigration officers, he was accused of murdering Shafer. Weeks after the homicide, Calixto continues to be on the run.
WCIA-TV reported on Noem’s go to to Springfield final Could the place spoke in entrance of Shafer’s dwelling the place she was murdered. Within the video report, an activist ally of Shafer’s mentioned Emma would have been out protesting Noem that day (effectively, if she hadn’t been murdered by her unlawful alien boyfriend.)
Excerpt:
On Wednesday, Noem speculated about Shafer’s case and used her loss of life as a political speaking level, and never solely with out her household’s consent, however whereas Shafer’s mom was actively protesting Noem’s journey to Springfield.
…Following Noem’s speech, Shafer’s relations launched a press release expressing their disappointment:
My daughter Emma radiated love and lightweight all over the place she went and for all folks. Whilst a toddler, she was a pal to everybody and somebody who spoke up for the much less lucky. She devoted her life – her profession and her free time – to causes of social justice and fairness. That was simply who she was.
To see her utilized by Secretary Noem and others to advance a merciless and heartless political agenda is not only deeply painful to us – it’s an insult to her reminiscence. Noem’s phrases are in direct battle with who Emma was as an individual. Emma constructed up neighborhood and stood with all members, together with immigrants.
No father or mother ought to need to expertise the loss of a kid. However each time her identify is introduced into these conversations – conversations she would have wished nothing to do with – we have now to relive the ache of her loss of life.
Secretary Noem, as a mom nonetheless grieving the loss of a kid, I urge you to cease. This isn’t who she was. This isn’t serving to us. Her reminiscence ought to dwell in all of the folks she touched and the causes that she fought for. And I ask all of you to recollect Emma as she was. And to dwell your life as she did: with brave empathy and love for all.
Video of Noem’s remarks in Springfield:
I went to Springfield, Illinois, to hitch Angel households to name for the tip for harmful sanctuary metropolis insurance policies underneath J.B. Pritzker and convey consideration to an at-large unlawful alien assassin who has been evading justice for 2 years for the stabbing of Emma Shafer.
We stand… pic.twitter.com/0P1anlupVR
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) May 7, 2025
