An illegal alien, previously deported from the United States, used asylum loopholes at the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the country before allegedly sexually abusing a child, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials say.
Celin Villeda-Orellana, a 33-year-old illegal alien from Honduras, was arrested by ICE agents this month as a part of Operation Noble Guardian which identifies adult border crossers who arrived with children for the sole purpose of being freed into the U.S. through a family unit loophole.
In many cases, the adult border crossers eventually send the children they arrived with back to their native countries so the children can be used again by foreign nationals seeking to illegally cross into the U.S.
The Denver Sheriff’s Department arrested Villeda-Orellana in February on six felony counts of child sexual abuse. ICE agents quickly placed a detainer on him, requesting that he be turned over to them for arrest and deportation if released from Denver custody.
Instead, the Denver Sheriff’s Department released Villeda-Orellana about ten days later back into the community.
“How is it justice to the victims to release these types of criminals to the streets?” ICE official John Fabbricatore said in a statement. “It is unconscionable to allow people like Villeda to be released and not honor our detainer while he potentially reenters the community to harm another child.”
Villeda-Orellana first entered the U.S. through the southern border near Nogales, Arizona in April 2007. That same month, Villeda-Orellana was arrested in Chicago by ICE agents. In July 2007, he was deported.
A decade later in November 2018, he was arrested crossing the border near Rio Grande, Arizona. At that time, Villeda-Orellana was released into the interior of the U.S. because he illegally crossed the border as a family unit, arriving with a child.
Villeda-Orellana’s arrest by ICE’s Operation Noble Guardian suggests that the illegal alien used the child to pose as a family unit in order to be released into the U.S. He now awaits his second deportation.
Since May 2019, ICE’s Operation Noble Guardian has identified 760 children who they believe were used to pose as members of a family unit in order for adult border crossers to secure release into the U.S.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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