Immigration

DOJ: Illegal immigrant admits to raping young girl and taking her across state lines

Published

3 years ago

March 10, 2021

An illegal immigrant admitted Tuesday to coercion and enticement of a minor and to illegally reentering the United States, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.

Juan Carlos Morales-Pedraza, 34, of Paterson, New Jersey, pleaded guilty by videoconference before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler to coercion and enticement of a minor and of illegally re-entering the United States after having previously been deported, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice.

Morales-Pedraza was deported in 2010, federal officials said.

Morales-Pedraza admitted that he is a citizen of Mexico and that he illegally entered the United States after having previously been deported.

In April 2019, Morales-Pedraza approached a 15-year-old girl in Passaic County, New Jersey. Two days later, after engaging in sexual intercourse with the victim, Morales-Pedraza and the victim left New Jersey and began traveling to Illinois.

An Ohio state trooper pulled the deportee over in Lucas County for failing to yield, authorities said at the time.

“There was that feeling that something wasn’t right,” Sgt. Ivan Nunez told WTOL11.

Police said Morales-Pedraza was ‘overly friendly’ during the stop and the girl lied about her age.

Troopers then discovered the girl had been reported missing.

Detectives determined that Morales-Pedraza “forced the girl to perform acts on him,” the Ohio Highway Patrol said in a statement.

The girl was brought to a local hospital before eventually being reunited with her family, authorities in New Jersey said.

Morales-Pedraza was also brought back to New Jersey, where a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Newark indicted him on charges of kidnapping, illegal transportation of a minor and illegally re-entering the U.S. as a removed alien.

Morales-Pedraza, who has been detained since the incident, took a plea deal from the government rather than face trial.

As part of the deal, federal authorities dropped the kidnapping and illegal transportation charges, allowing Morales-Pedraza to plead guilty to coercion and enticement of a minor and re-entering the country.

The count of coercion and enticement carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and mandatory restitution. The count of illegal re-entry carries a maximum prison sentence of two years and a $250,000 fine.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler scheduled sentencing for July 14.

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

Immigration

NYC Mayor Adams’ budget cuts slash total number of police and education funds

Published

3 weeks ago

November 17, 2023

Sara Carter Staff

GettyImages 1370356383 scaled e1644995315596

“No city should be left to handle a national humanitarian crisis largely on its own, and without the significant and timely support we need from Washington, D.C., today’s budget will only be the beginning,” said New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams about his decision to make budget cuts as a result of the overwhelming migrant crisis.

However, those who will suffer from budget cuts to the city’s services to offset the cost of dealing with the ever-increasing number of migrants are those that are in place to make the city better.

“The cuts will see police freeze hiring and bring the total number of police officers below 30,000. It would further slash the education budget by $1 billion over two years and affect a litany of other agencies” reports Just The News.

Albeit, Adams admitted: “In all my time in government, this is probably one of the most painful exercises I’ve gone through.” More than 110,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past year, including roughly 13,000 sent from Texas by GOP Governor Greg Abbott as part of his ongoing bussing plan to send new arrivals to the U.S. to sanctuary cities.

However, similar to other leaders of sanctuary cities, Adams is unwilling to put his money where his mouth is. In September, Adams warned that the crisis would “destroy New York City” and begged the federal government to pay for his mess.

“I’m gonna tell you something, New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I didn’t see an ending to. I don’t see an ending to this,” Adams said at the time. “The federal government needs to do its job. We need the federal government, the Congress members, the Senate and the president to do their job: close the borders,” said Adams’ advisor Ingrid Lewis Martin insisted in early October. “And until you close the borders, you need to come on with a full-on decompression strategy where you can take all of our migrants and move them through our 50 states.”