On the recordSeptember 19, 2024
Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Lopez for his comments. On August 4, 2024, Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston apprehended Guatemalan national Jorge Luis Castro-Alvarado, who was charged with raping a Massachusetts resident. Castro illegally entered the United States on an unknown date, at an unknown location without being inspected, admitted, or paroled by a U.S. immigration official. He was convicted of assault and battery on a family or household member. The court sentenced Castro to 18 months in prison and suspended all but 6 months of the prison sentence. In early 2023, Juan Carlos Garcia Rodriguez became one of the up to 140,000 unaccompanied children with whom HHS has lost contact. Just months after HHS lost contact with Garcia Rodriguez, he ran away from his sponsor and assaulted and murdered 11-year-old Maria Gonzalez in Pasadena, Texas. Garcia Rodriguez was illegally smuggled to the U.S. border through Louisiana in 2023 by a guide paid for by his parents. Rodriguez was then processed as a UAC and later transferred to custody of the Department of Health. Despite this, Rodriguez was placed with an unrelated adult sponsor who was also an illegal alien. I now yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Van Duyne), who knows about the ravages of illegal migration.





