Alleged Rockville school rape happened because Border Patrol failed, says NBPC president
WASHINGTON - The head of the National Border Patrol Council said that the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl at a Maryland high school would not have happened if the organization had done its job properly. His statement at a U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs meeting on Wednesday prompted a letter to be sent by the Committee head to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
At the meeting on Wednesday, Brandon Judd, President of the NBPC, said that neither 18-year-old Henry Sanchez, who was stopped in Texas and deemed unlawfully present in the country in August 2016, nor 17-year-old Jose Montano would have been in the United States if the National Border Patrol had properly done its job. Both Sanchez and Montano face rape and sex abuse charges related to the alleged incident that was reported last Thursday at Rockville High School in Maryland's Montgomery County.
"Had we done our job that 14-year-old girl would never have been raped. Period," Judd testified. "That's all there is to it," he continued. "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," he said. "We failed the citizens of this great nation by not securing the border."
Following his statement, the Committee's chairman, Senator Ron Johnson, sent a letter to acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, Thomas Homan.
In the letter Johnson asked for answers to several questions. He asked is Sanchez was an unaccompanied minor at the time of his arrest in 2016, and if so, was he turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services.
If he was an adult at the time of his arrest, Johnson asked if Sanchez claimed special status, how he was labeled pursuant to the DHS's priority enforcement model, and why he was not detained until his court date.
In the letter, Johnson also asked Homan if Montano was ever encountered by U.S. Border Patrol and if he was released as an unaccompanied minor.
Johnson also asked to be provided with the alien files for Sanchez and Montano.
On Thursday, a lawyer for Sanchez said that the encounter with the14-year-old girl was consensual.
According to court documents, the 14-year-old victim was walking with Montano in a school hallway Thursday morning when he asked her for sex. The police report indicates she said no. The two suspects then are accused of forcing the girl into a boy's bathroom and into a stall where they raped, sodomized and forced her to perform oral sex. The police report indicates she said no repeatedly, and tried to yell and fight them off but was unable to.
Continuing Coverage:
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