Report: Biden-Harris administration releases immigrant who raped minors

An illegal immigrant accused of raping a 14-year-old girl and repeatedly stabbing a man during a robbery was arrested in connection with those crimes just months after his release from custody at the southwest border, a congressional report says.

The Republican-led U.S. House Judiciary Committee and its Subcommittee on Integrity, Security and Immigration Enforcement released a report on Tuesday detailing the actions of a 19-year-old Honduran citizen.

The report criticizes the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies, citing figures that show the government has released 5.6 million illegal immigrants into the United States over the past four years and another 1.9 million have fled to the country during that period.

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One of the millions of illegal immigrants released by the Biden-Harris administration was 19-year-old Honduran Angel Matias Castellanos-Orellana. Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, encountered Castellanos-Orellana on October 6, 2023.

Castellanos-Orellana claimed he had no “reasonable fear” of being returned to his home country, but was released with a notice to appear in immigration court on an “order of release on your own recognizance.”

The release was due to a reported lack of space and the immigrant was ordered to report to ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations in New Orleans on November 7, 2023. According to the congressional report, Department of Homeland Security data shows it had enough space to detain Castellanos-Orellana.

A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told the Christian Post that Castellanos-Orellana made his first appearance at the ERO field office in New Orleans on November 7, 2023, and that he has no criminal record or previous arrests in the United States.

In February 2024, police in Kenner, Louisiana, arrested Castellanos-Orellana in connection with what the report described as a “brutal attack” on a 14-year-old girl and the stabbing of a man during a robbery.

Castellanos-Orellana was “charged with armed robbery, aggravated assault, first-degree rape and aggravated assault for the two incidents,” the report said.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous immigration policies have had real consequences for American citizens. The effects of these policies will be felt for years to come: criminal aliens in American neighborhoods harm families and endanger public safety across the country,” the committee’s report said.

“Castellanos-Orellana’s victims and their families will never be the same because the Biden-Harris administration allowed the illegal immigrant to enter and remain in the country,” the report continues. “Tragically, Castellanos-Orellana’s victims and their families are not alone.”

Last month, the committee and its subcommittee released an eight-page report blaming the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies for the murder of Laken Riley. The 22-year-old nursing student was murdered while jogging in February. Her body was later discovered on the University of Georgia campus.

The man arrested for the murder of the 22-year-old woman, Jose Antonio Ibarra, entered the country illegally through El Paso, Texas, on September 8, 2022. DHS also cited detention facility capacity as a reason for Ibarra’s release; however, the report argued that the agency’s data showed it could have arrested the immigrant.

“As a result of his release, Ibarra was free to commit crimes in the United States, including allegedly kidnapping and murdering Laken Riley in Georgia,” the committee and its subcommittee said in the document.

Before Riley’s murder, Ibarra and his brother Diego had already been charged with shoplifting at a Walmart. Despite previous encounters with police, Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not issue an arrest warrant for Ibarra until after the murder.

“The information received by the Committee clearly demonstrates the real-world consequences of the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to secure the border and enforce immigration law,” the report said. “Taken as a whole, the Committee’s investigation into the criminal illegal aliens permitted to enter the United States by the Biden-Harris administration reveals widespread failures to adequately screen, apprehend, detain, and deport illegal aliens.”