A leading U.S. senator is demanding to know why a teenager from
Central America accused of raping and sodomizing a 14-year-old girl in a
Maryland high school was allowed to enter and remain in the U.S. since
crossing the border illegally months ago.
Sen. Ron Johnson,
R-Wisc., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs
Committee, said Henry E. Sanchez-Milian, 18, of Guatemala, was detained
by Border Patrol in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, last August after entering
the U.S. illegally. The immigration status of another suspect in the
rape, Jose O. Montano, 17, from El Salvador, was unclear. ICE reported
Sanchez was ordered to appear before an immigration judge, but the
hearing had not been scheduled. The agency would not release any
information about Montano, citing his age.
“On March 16, 2017, a
tragic event occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland. According to news
reports, a 14-year old student was dragged into a high school restroom
and raped by two teenage boys,” Johnson wrote in a March 22 letter to
Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). “At a hearing March 22, Brandon Judd, president of
the National Border Patrol Council, testified if Border Patrol had
properly done its job, neither Sanchez-Milian or Montano would have been
present in this country to commit this heinous act.”
Johnson
wants to know if the teens arrived in the U.S. under the President
Obama’s Unaccompanied Minor Program, which allowed thousands of
unaccompanied children fleeing violence in their country to cross the
border illegally from Central America and remain in the United States.
He also wanted to know more about Montano, and whether he also was
picked up by Border Patrol.
Johnson’s inquiry followed testimony
from Judd, who said: “Had we done our job, that 14-year-old girl would
have never been raped. Period. Had we held those individuals in custody,
or that one individual in custody pending a determination that this
person should be allowed to remain in this country, that rape would not
have happened. We failed the citizens of this great nation by not
securing the border.”
County charging documents allege that
Montano and Sanchez-Milian forced their female classmate into a boy’s
bathroom near the school gym last Thursday at 9 a.m., where they
allegedly raped and sodomized her and forced her to perform oral sex.
After
school officials reported the incident, detectives from the Montgomery
County Police Department Special Victims Investigations Division
arrested Montano and Sanchez-Milian. A forensic team recovered blood and
male fluids from the bathroom, court records show.
Both boys, who
are enrolled as freshman because of their weak English language skills,
were charged with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree
sexual offense and will be tried as adults.
The judge who oversaw their bond hearing refused to release them on bail, because the students are “dangerous and flight risks.”
The case has sent shockwaves through the state, to Congress and to the White House.
"We failed the citizens of this great nation by not securing the border.”
- Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.)
White House spokesman Sean Spicer commented on
the case Tuesday in a press briefing: "The reason the president has
made it such a priority to crack down on illegal immigration is because
of cases like this."
ICE has since lodged an immigration detainer
against Sanchez-Milian, so ICE can take custody of him when he is
released, but it is unclear whether local law enforcement will comply.
Officials
in Montgomery County have been pushing to make the area a sanctuary for
illegal immigrants, and four days after the girl’s rape the House
passed a measure that would essentially make the entire state a safe
haven for illegal aliens, criminal or otherwise.
“It is
longstanding county policy that county police do not enforce federal
immigration law. Neither will they inquire about immigration status when
individuals are stopped nor target individuals based on their
ethnicity, race or religious beliefs,” said the Charles Immigrant
Resource Center in a guide for immigrants who recently moved to
Montgomery. “The county’s law enforcement leaders are also committed to
our values, and they will continue working to build trust in our
community.”
Montgomery County, where the alleged rape took place,
is on a list released this week by ICE of “jurisdictions that have
enacted policies which limit cooperation with ICE.”
Acting ICE
Director Thomas Homan noted in a statement to the media this week about
the case: “When law enforcement agencies fail to honor immigration
detainers and release serious criminal offenders, it undermines ICE’s
ability to protect the public safety and carry out its mission.”
Montgomery
County is not the worst, “but it’s pretty bad,” said Jessica Vaughan,
director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies.
“When
Northern Virginia cracked down around 2005 from 2011, many illegals
moved to Montgomery County, where they knew they would be treated more
leniently,” Vaughan said.
Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who opposes
the sanctuary legislation, said he is “outraged by the brutal and
violent rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Rockville public school” and
called on Montgomery County “to immediately and fully cooperate with all
federal authorities during the investigation.”
“The public has a
right to know how something this tragic and unacceptable was allowed to
transpire in a public school,” Hogan said.