A number of mayors, governors and other elected officials took great delight in announcing they were sponsoring “sanctuary cities”, in direct response to President Donald Trump’s vow to protect American families. Each of these locations is in a progressive stronghold, and each is struggling with a variety of issues ranging from overcrowding and increases in crime. Montgomery County in Maryland is one of the many sanctuary cities where officials refuse to carry out detention orders, or assist ICE in removing immigrants who commit crimes.
According to court records, ICE filed detention orders on two illegal immigrants who were also charged with crimes; the men resided in the safety zone of Montgomery county, and the orders were ignored. An 11-year-old girl, also an immigrant, was allegedly victimized by the two men shortly thereafter, according to court documents. The men not only attacked and raped the girl, a member of a family they knew, they filmed the assault as well.
According to Maryland’s WJLA news, two illegal immigrants were arrested for the crime; Mauricio Barrera-Navidad, 29, and Carlos Palacios-Amaya, 28, both of El Salvador. The child revealed the attack while speaking with a school social worker. The men were friends of the child’s older brother, and used their access to the family to repeatedly rape and assault the 11 year old.
On at least one occasion, the attackers filmed their assaults, according to the victim; the child’s middle school social worker reports that she was often pressured to stay home from school so the men could have unsupervised access to her. While the attacks went on for months, Palacios-Amaya is charged with four counts of second-degree rape, and Barrera-Navidad is charged with one count.
One of the attackers (Palacios- Amaya) had already been deported in 2014, his return to the country is a felony, since he is a two time illegal immigrant. Despite this, he was able to take sanctuary and stay in Montgomery County.
The other attacker, Mauricio Barrera, was also in the country illegally, and had an outstanding order of removal pending since 2016.
Had either of these men been deported or detained, they would not have had the opportunity to rape a middle schooler – not once, but allegedly dozens of times.
Sadly, this story is not an outlier or an unusual event. Sanctuaries like Montgomery County expose both citizens and at risk immigrants to crime, since criminals can enter and enjoy protected status. Just last month, Montgomery County took another step towards hosting a free-for-all city for illegal criminals. An executive order that directs county agencies to avoid cooperating with ICE or asking about immigration status is now in effect. Officials made no comment about this latest horrific crime or the dozens of others like it happening weekly in Montgomery County.
