Open door immigration policies put in place by the Obama administration were cited a cause for the alleged rape of a 14-year-old student inside Maryland high school by two illegals, according to the head of the Border Patrol union.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, cited the former administration’s “catch and release” program for letting the two illegals charged in the rape into the United States.
In Senate testimony, he said, “Had we done our job that 14-year-old girl would never have been raped. Period. That’s all there is to it.”
Two illegal immigrants have been charged in the rape that occurred a week ago in the Rockville, Md., high school. A lawyer for the oldest, 18-year-old Henry Sanchez-Milian, of Guatemala, claimed that the sex was consensual, but police claim they have a “strong case” for rape. Jose Montano, 17 of El Salvador, was also charged. Because he is a minor, no other details of his case have been released.
Homeland Security officials said that Sanchez-Milian crossed the Texas border, was caught, and released. They have released little other information, including if the two were allowed in under the Obama unaccompanied minor program or why Sanchez-Milian was released.
Addressing the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees border security operations, Judd said the service and policies let the girl down:
“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 wouldn’t have happened. We failed the citizens of this great nation by not securing the border. Not only did we have the catch and release program that completely and totally demoralized the rank and file agents in the border patrol, but we also had an arrest rate of … one out of every two. We only had a 50 percent effectiveness rate. That’s a problem. So not only were the individuals that we were actually arresting, not only were we releasing those individuals, but we were only apprehending one out of every two that was crossing the border illegally.”
The rape case has drawn national attention to the victims of illegal immigration and President Trump’s push to close the border and deport criminal illegals.
Rockville is in a county that the Department of Homeland Security has dubbed a “sanctuary,” and the local authorities have indicated that they won’t turn over either of the two charged until after a trial.
The chairman of the Senate panel, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, set a letter following his hearing to Immigration and Customs Enforcement demanding details about how Sanchez-Milian and Montano got into the United States.
From his letter, posted in full below:
— Was Henry Sanchez-Milian an unaccompanied minor at the time of his arrest by the Border Patrol.
— If he was a UAC, was he turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services? If so, on what date was he turned over to HHS? If he was an adult at the time of his arrest, please answering the following questions:
— Did Sanchez-Milian claim any special status? If so, what status did he declare?
— How did DHS label Sanchez-Milian pursuant to its priority enforcement model?
— Why was Sanchez-Milian not detained until his court date?
— Was jose Montano ever encountered by U.S. Border Patro.?
— If so, was he released to HHS as an unaccompanied minor?
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
