Illegal migrant convicted after raping child and attacking ICE officer

A Honduran man who raped a 13-year-old girl in Virginia he met online and then attacked an immigration officer who tried to arrest him has been sentenced to prison, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

Jhoan Esau Lemus-Ramos, 23, was sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child sexual abuse material and assaulting a federal officer.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Division said Lemus-Ramos raped his victim after she rejected his advances and then pressured her to send him nude photos.

When immigration officials showed up at his home in January, Lemus-Ramos punched one of them in the face.

The Honduran citizen entered the United States in 2021 and began messaging the girl online in February 2022.

A month later, he met her in a parking lot in Herndon, Virginia, where he repeatedly made sexual advances that she tried to resist.

According to prosecutors, Lemus-Ramos raped the 13-year-old sometime in 2022.

Over the next few months, until around August 2022, he repeatedly asked the victim for nude or semi-nude photos, which she eventually sent him from her phone.

When the girl told Lemus-Ramos that she wanted to stop, he threatened her with the photos and tried to persuade her to have sex with him again.

The victim contacted Herndon Police for help and officers investigated messages between her and the suspect, leading ICE officers to his home on January 4.

At that moment, Lemus-Ramos punched an officer in the face, causing an injury that required stitches.

The Honduran was sentenced to five years in prison on June 27 by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

“Jhoan Esau Lemus-Ramos posed a significant threat to the children of our Virginia communities,” said Liana Castano, director of ERO’s Washington, DC, field office, in a press release. “Not only did he traumatize his young victim by forcing himself on her; he also harassed her into sending him compromising images of herself.”

“After his arrest, Lemus Ramos assaulted one of our officers. ERO Washington, DC will continue to make public safety our highest priority by arresting and removing the worst non-citizen offenders from our neighborhoods.”

ICE said the case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, which was launched by the Justice Department to combat the sexual exploitation of children across the country.

Last fiscal year, the agency arrested 73,822 foreign nationals with criminal records, with about four charges per person. Of those charges, 4,390 were for sexual assault.

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