A migrant arrested at the border for crossing illegally before being let go has been charged with raping a five-year-old girl on Long Island.
Wilson Castillo Diaz, 26, of Westbury, is accused of raping the young victim at an undisclosed location on Oct. 16, according to Nassau County police.
Diaz, who illegally crossed the U.S. border near Rio Grande, Texas, in April 2014, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents and subsequently released.
He later failed to show up for an immigration court hearing.
Details about the circumstances of the alleged rape, including the relationship between Diaz and the victim, were not available.
The child was taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation.
Diaz was arrested on Oct. 22 and arraigned the next day on charges of rape, attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.
Wilson Castillo Diaz, 26, was charged with rape, attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child
Diaz, who illegally crossed the U.S. border at Rio Grande, Texas, in 2014, was released by Border Patrol after receiving a summons to appear in immigration court, which he did not attend.
He is currently being held on a $200,000 bond.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been notified of the arrest.
This incident follows the high-profile murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley nursing student in Georgia, allegedly by an illegal migrant.
The suspect, Jose Ibarra, from Venezuela, had entered the US in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022. He was released by authorities due to lack of detention space.
Riley was running on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens when Ibarra delivered trauma to Riley’s head and “suffocated her in a manner unknown to the jurors,” according to his complaint.
It also says Ibarra “severely disfigured her head by hitting her head several times with a rock.”
Immigration has emerged as a key campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, after an unprecedented wave of migrants strained budgets in cities such as New York, Chicago and Denver.
Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has stepped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric by suggesting that migrants are more likely to commit crimes than US citizens, even though the evidence does not support these claims.
In late September, Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris walked along the U.S.-Mexico border and called for further tightening of asylum restrictions as she sought to take a tougher stance on illegal migration and address one of her biggest electoral vulnerabilities to grab. .
She balanced tough talk about border control with calls for a better way to welcome migrants legally.
The Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which includes El Paso and all of southern New Mexico, is currently the third busiest in the country, with only Tucson and San Diego having more encounters.
Laken Riley, 2, was found dead on the University of Georgia campus on February 22
Riley’s accused killer, Jose Ibarra, had entered the United States from El Paso, Texas, in September 2022
This part of the border has become increasingly deadly for migrants, many of whom have died from the extreme heat.
In May, 23,478 migrants were encountered by US officials in El Paso.
Nationally, 241,022 migrants were stopped trying to enter the US illegally.
At least 2.2 million migrants crossed U.S. borders in fiscal year 2024, according to federal statistics.