Immigration

Sanctuary County Judges Gave Lenient Sentences To Illegal Migrant Sex Offenders, Investigation Found

Migrants from Honduras, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, look through fence at a dead migrant who drown trying to swim across to the United States illegally from Mexico at International Friendship Park, in San Diego county, U.S., December 28, 2018. Picture taken from Tijuana, Mexico. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

A local news investigation found that Maryland judges in a “sanctuary” jurisdiction disproportionately handed down lenient sentences to illegal immigrants charged with child sex crimes.

FOX45 News combed through 99 child sex crime cases handled by Baltimore County Circuit Court judges over a 17-month time period, spanning from January 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024. Their investigation found that circuit court judges repeatedly gave light sentences to defendants who were living in the United States unlawfully, while simultaneously handing down harsher sentences to African Americans charged with similar crimes.

“I am appalled and angered that any child might be subjected to sexual abuse,” Maryland Democrat Rep. Kweisi Mfume said in reaction to the investigation’s findings, according to FOX45. “I have no sympathy for persons who are convicted of such crimes – whether they are undocumented migrants or American citizens.”

Some of the illegal immigrants examined in the investigation had been repeatedly deported from the U.S. and charged with egregious sex crimes, such as child rape.

Luis Portillo-Henriquez, an individual featured in the investigation, entered the U.S. unlawfully and had repeatedly been arrested by local Maryland Police in past years. However, after he was found guilty of raping a 14-year-old living in his Baltimore home and sentenced to 25 years in prison, his punishment was reduced to just 18 months jail time.

In another example, Arles Efrain Avila had been repeatedly arrested by deportation officers and repatriated back to his home country of Honduras, according to Fox45. However, when he was arrested in January 2023 in Baltimore County for several child sex crimes, a judge simply gave him a five-year probation sentence.

The Fox45 investigation found that, of the 99 cases they reviewed over the 17-month time period, nearly 10% involved illegal migrants from Central America.

The investigation additionally found that the Baltimore County Circuit Court gave harsher sentences to African Americans charged with similar crimes, according to FOX45. In three similar cases, African American defendants received a prison sentence of four or more years, and some other black defendants reportedly received prison sentences of 12 or more years.

“We are appalled by the shocking data point showing that black offenders are getting stiffer penalties than others for sex crimes,” Baltimore County Republican delegates Kathy Szelgia and Ryan Nawrocki said to FOX45 in reaction to the investigation’s findings. “The soft-on-crime laws and judiciary are dangerous and must be changed.”

Baltimore County has historically been a “sanctuary” jurisdiction, with local laws in the books that prohibit county police from apprehending illegal migrants solely because of their immigration status, according to FOX45. However, following local backlash, county leaders have suggested they would begin cooperating more with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A spokesperson of the Baltimore County Circuit Court did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Other county courts across Maryland have also given light sentences to illegal immigrants charged with child sex crimes, the DCNF found.

The DCNF was on scene when ICE agents apprehended Darwin Adonai Garcia-Garcia, a 21-year-old Honduran national living illegally in the U.S. Garcia-Garcia was originally sentenced to 30 years in prison for his conviction of false imprisonment and sex crimes against a minor, but a circuit court judge in Prince George’s County suspended all but 229 days of hi sentence, allowing him to quickly return to the local community.

Featured image credit: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem