DHS Says He Was Released at the Texas Border in 2024. Branch County Prosecutors Say He Stabbed a Coworker to Death at a Michigan Meat Plant — Valmir Djempsley Has Pleaded Not Guilty.
Valmir Djempsley, 20, a Haitian national, is charged with open murder in the June 30 stabbing death of his 21-year-old coworker, Brandon Eduardo Velasquez Chavez, inside the Clemens Food Group pork-processing plant in Coldwater, Michigan. Witnesses told investigators the two men argued over a knife in the plant’s loin-boning production area; Djempsley chased Chavez and stabbed him once in the lower back. Chavez died at the scene despite CPR.
On July 8, the Department of Homeland Security said Djempsley is in the country illegally — encountered and released at the Texas border in 2024, DHS says, under the Biden administration. Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said the killing would not have happened “if it weren’t for the reckless open border policies of the Biden Administration.” ICE has lodged a detainer asking Branch County not to release Djempsley without notifying federal immigration authorities first.
Djempsley was arraigned July 1, pleaded not guilty to open murder, and was denied bond. He is presumed innocent unless and until a Branch County jury says otherwise; nothing in this story should be read as a finding of guilt.
- 1 deadBrandon Chavez, 21stabbed once in the lower back inside the Clemens Food Group plant, June 30, 2026 — WWMT, WOOD TV8
- 20Djempsley's agethe Haitian national Branch County charged with open murder in the killing — DHS, WWMT
- 2024border releasethe year DHS says Djempsley was encountered and released at the Texas border under the Biden administration — DHS, July 8, 2026
- No bonddenied July 1Judge Weigle cited public-safety concerns, flight risk, and Djempsley's ICE hold — WTVB
- ~500Haitian residentsliving in Coldwater, a city of about 14,000, per local reporting — WTVB
- Lifemaximum sentenceopen murder carries a possible life sentence under Michigan law if Djempsley is convicted — WWMT
Branch County emergency crews were dispatched around 7:41 p.m. on Monday, June 30, to the Clemens Food Group plant on Newton Road, near I-69 in Coldwater. Djempsley and Chavez worked near one another in the plant’s loin-boning production area, where employees are assigned specific numbered knives. Witnesses told police the two men argued after Djempsley accused Chavez of using his knife.
Multiple witnesses said they saw Djempsley chase Chavez with a knife and lunge toward his back. Chavez fell to the ground holding his side. He had suffered a single stab wound to the left side of his lower back. Despite CPR and lifesaving efforts by medical personnel who responded to the scene, Chavez was pronounced dead there.
In a post-Miranda interview conducted with translation assistance, Djempsley admitted to swinging the knife at Chavez, according to WWMT’s reporting on the police affidavit. He claimed Chavez had headbutted him first — a claim witnesses did not corroborate. Michigan State Police and the county medical examiner assisted Coldwater Public Safety with the investigation.
DHS’s July 8 statement is blunt about how Djempsley came to be in Coldwater at all: he entered the United States illegally at the Texas border in 2024 and was released into American communities, the agency says, under the Biden administration. Local court reporting on his arraignment, by contrast, describes Djempsley as having been “on a work visa” at the time of the killing. Neither account has published the specific visa category or parole program involved — and both can be true at once. Migrants processed and released at the border under Biden-era policy, rather than detained or turned back, were routinely granted work authorization while their immigration cases moved through backlogged federal courts. This story presents both descriptions rather than resolving a gap the public record has not yet closed.
“This illegal alien barbarically stabbed his coworker to death. This murderer was released into American communities by the Biden Administration. If it weren't for the reckless open border policies of the Biden Administration, this criminal never would have been in our country in the first place, and his victim would still be alive. We have lodged a detainer asking Michigan to not release this dangerous criminal from jail without notifying ICE.”
Lauren Bis, Acting DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs — DHS statement, July 8, 2026
What is not in dispute: whatever his exact legal footing, Djempsley was working a shift alongside Chavez at Clemens Food Group on June 30, 2026 — a job that exists in a mixed-status Coldwater workforce now under separate, unrelated pressure from a June 25 Supreme Court ruling on Haitian immigration status, discussed further below.
Djempsley appeared virtually from the Branch County Jail for his July 1 arraignment, with a Haitian Creole interpreter assisting. Circuit Judge Weigle denied bond, citing public-safety concerns, flight risk, and the fact that Djempsley now carries an active ICE detainer — a federal request that Branch County notify immigration authorities before any release, rather than a mandate the county has been forced to defy or honor under duress. Djempsley remains held without bond at the Branch County Jail.
Interim Branch County Prosecutor Victor Fitz (R) — a 23-year elected prosecutor in neighboring Cass County before his May 2026 appointment to Branch County — framed the killing in blunt moral terms at the arraignment.
“This is the most serious violation known to humankind... He was supposed to be on his best behavior, but instead, he spilled the lifeblood of another human being.”
Victor Fitz, interim Branch County Prosecutor (R) — via WWMT
BREAKING: DHS confirms that a suspect arrested for murder after he allegedly stabbed his coworker to death at a Michigan meat plant is a Haitian illegal alien who was caught and released at the Texas border by the Biden administration in 2024. ICE has placed a detainer on Valmir Djempsley…
A probable-cause hearing is scheduled for today, July 9, with a preliminary examination set for July 16 in Branch County District Court, per WWMT’s reporting. If the case is bound over, it moves to Branch County Circuit Court for trial.
Coldwater, a city of roughly 14,000, is home to an estimated 500 Haitian immigrants, many drawn by jobs at Clemens Food Group and by small businesses they have opened in town, per WTVB’s reporting. That community was already unsettled before the stabbing: on June 25, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to reject a challenge to the Trump administration’s revocation of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, clearing the way to strip lawful work authorization from an estimated 350,000 Haitians nationwide. Employers nationally, including Clemens, faced new Form I-9 and E-Verify re-verification deadlines beginning July 2.
That TPS fight is legally distinct from Djempsley’s case and this story does not conflate the two: TPS holders were granted temporary status through a formal federal program, while DHS describes Djempsley as someone encountered and released at the border without that status. Both populations, however, form part of the same mixed-status workforce that has made Coldwater a significant Haitian community hub in Michigan — a fact that has made this single violent case a flashpoint for a debate that was already underway in Branch County before June 30.
BREAKING: DHS says a Haitian illegal alien charged with fatally stabbing a coworker at a Michigan meat processing plant was encountered and released at the Texas border by the Biden administration in 2024. ICE has lodged a detainer against Valmir Djempsly, who is now facing a…
The accountability line in this story runs through two governments, not one. At the local level, Coldwater Public Safety Director Joe Scheid and interim Branch County Prosecutor Victor Fitz (R) moved quickly — arrest, arraignment, and a bond denial within 24 hours of the killing. At the federal level, DHS says the man now facing an open-murder charge should never have been released into the country in the first place.
Victor Fitz (R) — interim Branch County Prosecutor; charged Djempsley with open murder and secured a bond denial at arraignment.
Joe Scheid — Coldwater Public Safety Director; oversaw the initial homicide investigation, appointed rather than elected.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) — no public statement on this case found as of this writing.
President Joe Biden (D) — DHS attributes Djempsley’s 2024 release at the Texas border to his administration’s border-processing policy.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem (R) and Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis — the current administration's DHS, which lodged the ICE detainer and issued the July 8 statement blaming its predecessor's border policy.
Branch County is not a sanctuary jurisdiction, and nothing in the local record suggests officials there resisted the ICE detainer — Djempsley’s denied bond already keeps him in county custody, where the detainer would take effect only if he were otherwise released. The system failure DHS describes sits upstream of Branch County entirely: at the Texas border, in 2024, under a different administration.
Djempsley faces a preliminary examination July 16 in Branch County District Court, where a judge will decide whether prosecutors have shown probable cause to bind the open-murder charge over for trial. He has pleaded not guilty and remains presumed innocent. If convicted, DHS says, Djempsley faces possible life imprisonment followed by deportation — deportation that, per the ICE detainer now on file, would follow any release from state custody regardless of the case's outcome.
None of that resolves the open questions this story has flagged: the exact visa or parole category under which Djempsley was working, the full border-processing record from 2024, and whether Djempsley’s account of being headbutted first will factor into his defense. Those questions will play out in a Branch County courtroom, not in a DHS press release.
Brandon Chavez, 21, is dead after a June 30 stabbing at a Coldwater meat plant. Branch County has charged coworker Valmir Djempsley, 20, with open murder; he has pleaded not guilty and is presumed innocent. DHS says Djempsley should never have been in the country at all — encountered and released at the Texas border in 2024 under the Biden administration, then living and working in Michigan for two years before the killing. Local officials moved fast; the failure DHS describes happened two years and a thousand miles upstream.
