A new report also found that roughly 10 percent of child sex crimes committed in one Maryland county involve undocumented immigrants from Central American countries who receive lighter sentences than U.S. offenders.
a Fox45 investigation It was revealed that state prosecutors in Baltimore County indicted 99 cases of child sex crimes between January 1, 2023 and the end of May 2024. Of these, nine defendants in a 17-month period were illegal immigrants from Central American countries.
Citing court records, the media reported that the three men received lenient sentences: One illegal immigrant convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl had his 25-year sentence reduced to 18 months, while another man arrested on multiple child sex offense charges received five years’ probation.
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June 6, 2024: Migrants line up at the southern border in San Diego. (Fox News)
A spokesperson for the circuit court told the outlet, “We cannot comment on individual cases, but judges make decisions based on many different factors that are unique to each case.”
“One such factor may be the understanding that an individual who is subject to ICE or other federal custody will be immediately detained by ICE or another federal agency upon completion of any state-imposed sentence,” they said, noting that another factor is the terms of a plea agreement, which a judge can accept or reject.
The media reported that in three similar cases involving illegal immigrants, black defendants were sentenced to more than four years in prison, and of 11 completed cases involving black defendants, two received sentences of more than 12 years in prison.
But the high presence of illegal immigrants among suspected child sex offenders will heighten concerns about a surge in immigrant crimes that Republicans have cited in the middle of an election year in which the crisis at the southern border has become a top political issue.
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FILE – Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are photographed in Ohio, June 19, 2018. Image credit: ICE/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
Former President Trump this week tried again to link the number of high-profile illegal immigration crimes to Biden administration policies.
“As you know, Kamala Harris was appointed Border Commissioner in March of 2021, but since then, millions of illegal immigrants have entered our country and countless Americans have been killed in immigration crimes because of her willful destruction of our borders and laws,” Trump said in a conference call with reporters.
Trump contrasted his own policies on border security with those of the current administration, promising to repeal Biden’s policies if elected, just as the Biden administration has repealed many of Trump’s policies since taking office.
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The Biden administration has blamed congressional Republicans for the crisis, saying they have not approved funding or reforms to a “broken” system. In response to Trump’s comments, Harris’ campaign pointed to policies he implemented during his presidency and to signs he recently held at the Republican National Convention calling for mass deportations.
“The only ‘plan’ Donald Trump has for securing our border is to separate mothers from their children and hold up a few xenophobic signs at the Republican National Convention. He ruined the toughest bipartisan border security deal in a generation. Because for Donald Trump, this has always been about himself, not actually securing the border. He can lie all he wants, but the fact is that there is only one candidate in this race who is fighting for real solutions to secure our border, and that is VP Harris,” Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz responded.
Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from the Fox News Digital immigration hub.
