Authorities have confirmed that the boyfriend of a Virginia mother who was arrested after her two young sons were found chained by their ankles to a post is an illegal immigrant.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed to Fox News' Bill Melgin that one of the suspects charged in a child abuse case in Fairfax County, Virginia, is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was deported in 2019 and re-entered the country as a fugitive at an unknown time and location.
“Franklin Arquimedes Viera Guevara is a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who is in the U.S. illegally. U.S. Border Patrol arrested Viera on November 1, 2018, near McAllen, Texas, after he entered the U.S. illegally,” ICE said in a statement.
According to the agency, Viera Guevara was transferred from the United States to El Salvador on February 1, 2019, through an emergency removal procedure.
Virginia couple arrested after two children found chained in home
A Virginia mother and her alleged boyfriend are facing charges after two young boys were found chained by their ankles to a post inside a home, police said. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
But ICE said Viera Guevara illegally re-entered the U.S. on an unknown date and location without being inspected by U.S. immigration officials, granted admissibility or released on parole.
Fairfax County Police Police were dispatched to an apartment in Groveton, Virginia on Aug. 15 after receiving a report of possible child abuse.
According to court documents, one of the boys used his roommate's phone to take photos of his chained ankles and sent the photos to his sister, who called 911.
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According to a criminal complaint, officers reported hearing the sound of chains rattling inside when they knocked on the door. Fox 5DC After someone opened the door, officers saw a chain wrapped around a post next to a crib and two boys, brothers ages 7 and 9, chained by their ankles.
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Wedoni del Cid Rodriguez and Franklin Vieira-Guevara (Fairfax County Police Department)
Wendy Del Cid Rodriguez, 46, and Viera Guevara were arrested on suspicion of two counts of child abuse, two counts of child neglect and two counts of kidnapping. The Washington, D.C. ERO also filed an immigration detention order against Guevara at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center later the same day.
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Rodriguez and Viera Guevara allegedly told investigators they briefly put the boys on ankle chains to “threaten” them into leaving the house, but a roommate told police that was a lie and that the boys were left tied up and unsupervised when the suspects were not home.
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report.
