A Haitian migrant has been charged with the rape of a 15-year-old girl at an emergency shelter in Rockland, Massachusetts.
Police responded to a call about an alleged sexual assault on Wednesday night around 7 p.m. at a Comfort Inn that was being used to house unlawful migrants who have arrived in the city, as reported by The Boston Globe.
The alleged attacker was identified as 26-year-old Cory Alvarez, who has since pled not guilty to the charge of aggravated rape of a child under 16 during a Thursday arraignment in Hingham District Court, according to Boston 25 News.
The victim told police through a translator that she went into Alvarez’s room to ask for help with her tablet before the alleged attack occurred, telling police, “I asked him to leave me alone, but he didn’t stop,” per Boston 25.
Reports from Fox News indicate that Alvarez entered the United States through a federal program that allows up to 30,000 migrants to fly into the country each month.
The policy was announced in 2022 for Venezuelan migrants but was expanded to include Cuban, Haitian, and Nicaraguan migrants in January 2023, allowing them to fly in if they meet certain requirements.
Those attempting to fly into the United States through this program must prove they did not enter unlawfully, have a sponsor in the United States already, and meet various other criteria. Migrants who enter the United States through this program are eligible for work permits and a two-year authorization to remain in the country, per Fox News.
The program seemingly adds to the various issues being raised regarding the number of migrants in the United States, particularly in light of the record-high levels of unlawful migration being seen at the southern border in recent years.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified on Monday during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing and said the agency has been concerned about “a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“And that includes everything from drug trafficking — the FBI alone seized enough fentanyl in the last two years to kill 270 million people — that’s just on the fentanyl side,” he continued.
“An awful lot of the violent crime in the United States is at the hands of gangs who are themselves involved in the distribution of that fentanyl,” he said.
The smuggling of deadly drugs has become a major concern for states along the border. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has utilized Operation Lone Star to help manage the crisis.
Since the program first started in March 2021, more than 469 million lethal doses of fentanyl have been seized along the southern border by state law enforcement officers, according to a press release from the Office of the Texas Governor.
In Dallas, drug offenses are among the most prevalent crimes reported. As of March 14, a total of 1,887 had been logged in the City’s crime analytics dashboard this year. This is a 3.6% uptick from the year prior over the same period.
Sector 130 — which comprises Downtown Dallas — has seen the most drug offenses reported, with a total of 162 logged for a year-over-year rise of 4.5%. Criminality in Downtown Dallas regularly outpaces that seen in Fort Worth’s city center, which is patrolled with a specialized neighborhood police unit and private security guards.
The Dallas Police Department has been struggling to fight crime amid a significant staffing shortage. It has just around 3,000 officers within its ranks despite a City report recommending closer to 4,000.
Moreover, City officials voted to budget DPD just $654 million this fiscal year, far less than the spending levels on public safety and policing seen in other high-crime jurisdictions, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
