It’s hard to imagine a dumber system than the one we have in this country, a system that allows child rapists to go unpunished because they happen to be here illegally. Consider the case of Juan Ramon-Pacheo, a 38-year-old illegal border-crosser who was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl repeatedly in Wisconsin. His friend, Lorenzo Bernabe-Lucas, actually impregnated the girl. The judge in the case, Mark Nielsen, reluctantly agreed with the district attorney that he should drop the charges against Ramon-Pacheo, even though the evidence was strong, because he was “likely to be deported.”
Madison.com reported on the transcripts from the hearing, quoting the judge as saying, “This defendant (Ramon-Pacheco) is going to be deported and won’t be our problem. (It) simply makes our problem Mexico’s problem, I suppose.”
But Mexico’s problem is still our problem, it seems. Ramon-Pacheco is still in our jail and has been for over five months. It’s a mystery why Judge Nielsen dismissed the charges in favor of a deportation that may or may not happen, considering what he knows about our system.
“I have a fair amount of experience from my prior federal practice with how effective deportation is, which is to say that generally means they won’t be back for months,” Nielsen said before dropping the case, according to Madison.com. “But why are we dismissing this case? … I mean, it’s a sexual assault of a child.”
The prosecutor insisted that her motive was to keep the child from having to testify twice in the same case. The only one of her attackers who will pay for his crimes is the one who got her pregnant. Ramon-Pacheco will get off scot-free and probably walk right back into the U.S. after his deportation (if it even happens).
Is anyone ever going to fix immigration and seal the border? It doesn’t seem like it. Meanwhile, child predators are just wandering in and committing crimes. If you want your head to explode, check out this article in the Washington Post about Montgomery County and their sanctuary city policies that are harboring child predators: Seven undocumented immigrants emerge as sex assault suspects and pull Montgomery County into national debate.
Can’t reasonable people agree that this is not sane policy?
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo.” Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
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