Politics

Officials In ‘Sanctuary’ County Lash Out At Conservative Media For Reporting On Rash Of Illegal Alien Sex Crimes

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, blamed conservative media, the White House and a top immigration official Thursday for drawing attention to a recent spate of sexual assaults carried out by illegal aliens.

The county, which is just north of Washington, D.C., has drawn national attention after seven illegal aliens from Central America were arrested there on sex crime-related charges since July 25.

“There has been a lot of inaccurate information spread by the White House, President Trump, Acting USCIS Director Ken Cuccinelli, local and national conservative news outlets and neo-Nazi sympathizers regarding our criminal justice system and its process,” the county council said in a statement.

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, earlier blamed the county’s so-called “sanctuary” policies for enabling the crimes.

More sanctuary Montgomery county consequences… sad and tragic https://t.co/bJuQTlJufL

— USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli (@USCISCuccinelli) September 3, 2019

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, a Democrat, signed an executive order in July barring county law enforcement officers from asking about individual’s immigration status. The order also prohibits county law enforcement from working with federal immigration agencies, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Emilio Carrasco-Hernandez, a 37-year-old Honduran national, was the most recent arrest. He was arrested on Aug. 26 on charges of raping a 15-year-old girl at a home they shared in Silver Spring, Maryland. Carrasco-Hernandez was deported from the U.S. in April 2017.

But county executives shot back Thursday, blaming Cuccinelli, the White House and conservative news outlets that have covered the string of alleged rapes.

“These individuals and organizations should be ashamed for spreading false information seeking to establish a baseless, illogical and xenophobic connection between a person’s failure to obtain legal status and their propensity to commit a sex crime,” the statement from the city council read.