Sexual Predators Ride a Merry-Go-Round, Courtesy of Porous Borders and Sanctuary Cities
A former Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star pitcher has finally been deported more than two years after he was convicted of statutory sexual assault, sexual abuse of children, child pornography and other charges.
The removal of Felipe Vazquez (aka Felipe Javier Rivero Blanco) to his native Venezuela demonstrates the government’s “commitment to protecting U.S. persons from predators regardless of their public persona or status,” said a federal official.
Immigration agents have their work cut out for them, as evidenced by recent sexual assault cases involving illegal aliens in Virginia and Maryland.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced last week the arrest of a Honduran national on felony rape and abduction charges in Herndon, Va. Officials said the unidentified man illegally entered the U.S. on an unknown date, at an unknown location, and without being inspected by immigration authorities.
Border Patrol agents first apprehended the Honduran near Roma, Texas, in June 2021, and issued him a notice to appear before an immigration judge. (Records do not indicate what happened in court, or if the man bothered to appear.)
On July 20, 2023, the man was charged in Virginia with felony rape by force, threat, or intimidation, abduction by force and assault on a family member. After being released by local authorities (who did not notify ICE), the Honduran was apprehended a third time, and is back in the Fairfax County jail … for now.
In a sickeningly similar scenario, federal agents arrested an illegal alien after his conviction on sex crimes against a Maryland minor. Officers from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Fugitive Operations Team in Baltimore apprehended the Guatemalan national outside his Capitol Heights residence on Sept. 18.
Border Patrol had detained the Guatemalan in July 2007 after he entered the U.S. illegally near Riviera, Texas. He was returned to his home country in August 2007, but re-entered the U.S., again illegally.
Convicted on a host of sexual offenses against a minor in Maryland, the man was sentenced by a local court on Aug. 18, 2023, to 10 years of confinement, with all 10 years suspended. Taken into custody 30 days later by ERO Baltimore, he has been served with a removal notice.
Also on Sept. 18, in Columbia, Md., ICE officers arrested a 50-year-old Mexican national who had been removed twice from the U.S., and failed to register as a sex offender when he came back. The man had been convicted of sexually molesting a 5-year-old girl.
The foregoing accounts are just a tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Guatemalan and Mexican nationals were ERO Baltimore’s 150th and 151st apprehensions of illegal-alien sex offenders during fiscal year 2023.
Texas, one of the few states that keep statistics on illegal-alien crime, reports that more than 6,300 illegal aliens have been convicted of sexual assaults and sexual offenses there since 2011, an average of more than 500 a year.
Multiply those figures across America and you get a sense of how porous borders and lawless sanctuary jurisdictions conspire to endanger U.S. communities, and our children, every day.