House Democrats were caught on video downplaying the role of illegal immigration in the murder of 12-year-old Houston girl Jocelyn Nangaray, with one member telling Fox Business, “I don’t know who she is.”
The comments came after bail was set at $10 million each for Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, two Venezuelan suspects charged with murder. Both men entered the United States illegally near El Paso, Texas, before being captured by Border Patrol and released. Nungaray was strangled early last week and prosecutors say there are signs of sexual assault.
When FOX Business Correspondent Hillary Vaughn caught up with Rep. Summer Lee to ask her opinion on Nungarei’s murder, she cut her off by saying, “Oh, sorry, I don’t talk to strangers. You don’t know who she is, and I’m out of Pittsburgh.”
“I don’t know anything about that,” Lee added, before disappearing into his Capitol Hill office.
Jocelyn Nangaray’s family calls for increased border security
Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) told Fox Business correspondent Hillary Vaughn that she doesn’t know who Jocelyn Nangaray is. (Fox News)
Asked by Vaughn if it’s time to rethink parole policy if we’re going to release people who kill children, California Rep. Robert Garcia called Nungarey’s murder “horrific” and said “the people who commit crimes should be held fully accountable for their crimes.”
“Broadly speaking, I think what this country needs is broad-based refugee, border and immigration reform,” he continued. “I think we all know what the data shows. We know that immigrants, according to police department data, are actually less likely to commit crimes than natural-born citizens.”
Garcia later said, “We should not release anyone who we believe may be a threat to the nation.”
“We have a judge problem. The courts are overcrowded,” he added. “We’re hearing from people who are actually bringing people in, interviewing them, looking at them, trying to determine if that person is safe. When it comes to the asylum process, we don’t have enough judges, we don’t have enough clerks. So we have to reform.”
Jocelyn Nangaray murder case: 2nd illegal immigrant suspect set to $10 million bail as woman yells at suspect in court
This week, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nangaray was found strangled to death in a creek in Houston. (Courtesy of Fox Houston and the Nungarei Family)
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., echoed the Democrats’ comments, telling Vaughn, “These are horrific cases and I believe that anyone who commits these horrific acts should be prosecuted. But as we know, studies show that illegal immigrants commit crimes at much lower rates than others.”
“But wouldn’t these crimes have been prevented if they had not been paroled and deported?” Vaughan asked.
Jayapal got into the elevator and didn’t respond as the doors closed.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler also said he “cannot comment on parole policies” regarding migrants apprehended at the US border, but added that “if you look at the statistics, immigrant crime rates are much lower than crime rates among native-born Americans.”
Franklin Jose Peña Ramos (left) and Johan Jose Martinez Rangel are charged with murdering Jocelyn Nungaray on Monday, June 17, in Houston, Texas. (Harris County Jail)
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“It’s unfortunate that someone was killed, but immigrants, legal and illegal, commit crimes at a much lower rate than native-born Americans,” he added. “That’s a fact.”
