ICE deports Jamaican criminal illegal alien convicted of murdering a father of 7
Thirteen months after illegally entering the U.S., the violent criminal illegal alien became the center of a 2009 cold case in New York
WASHINGTON / February 25, 2026— On Jan. 8, ICE deported Kemar Hamilton, a criminal illegal alien from Jamaica convicted of homicide in New York. In 2012, he was arrested for the murder of Edgar McCalla, a 58-year-old Jamaican immigrant with seven children. Hamilton shot McCalla during a robbery outside McCalla’s Bronx home on Feb. 19, 2009, then fled the scene. Police discovered a prepaid cellphone at the murder scene dropped by the killer, which initially yielded no DNA match and soon after, the case grew cold.
A break in the case came two years later, when local law enforcement stopped Hamilton for a traffic violation and discovered a loaded firearm inside his vehicle. Officials arrested him and investigators later discovered his DNA matched that on the cellphone dropped at the murder scene years before.
“I commend local law enforcement for breaking this murder case and the prosecutors for securing a conviction, but the truth is, Kemar Hamilton should have never been in this country in the first place,” said ICE Deputy Director Charles Wall. “We’ve said it over and over: Enforcing immigration law protects Americans — and it protects our immigrant communities. This criminal crossed our border illegally, then went on to murder a father of seven from his own home nation.”
Hamilton snuck into the United States in 2008, but U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended him within days and released him on his own recognizance, as was customary at the time, with a notice to appear in court for immigration proceedings. Approximately a year after illegally entering the U.S., Hamilton killed McCalla — leaving seven innocent children fatherless.
While Hamilton hid from justice on New York streets, immigration officials were already processing his removal orders, and an immigration judge ordered him removed Dec. 23, 2009. A judge in New York sentenced Hamilton to over a decade in prison. ICE Buffalo officers arrested him Oct. 6, 2025, upon his release from the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden to prevent his release into the community and effect his removal.
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Source: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE.gov)
