Illegal immigrant pleads guilty to sexually abusing 12-year-old girl

EXCLUSIVE – An illegal immigrant from Honduras who was released during the Biden administration after entering the United States across the southern border has pleaded guilty in Iowa to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl.

Junior Manuel Dubon Benitez, 18, was arrested on Feb. 14 on suspicion of “sexual abuse of Jane Doe, a 12-year-old child,” at a Waterloo, Iowa, apartment, according to court documents first obtained by the Washington Examiner.

A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Washington Examiner that Dubon Benitez was a Honduran citizen who entered the United States illegally near Hidalgo, Texas, in April 2022 as a 16-year-old.

The case is the latest example of what former President Donald Trump has dubbed “Biden migrant crime,” a term used to describe crimes committed by immigrants who entered the country illegally during the Biden-era border crisis and were then released.

In the more than 40 months since President Joe Biden took office, nearly 10 million non-U.S. citizens have been encountered by federal law enforcement while attempting to enter the country – more than in any other period in history.

Dubon Benitez was charged with second-degree sexual abuse but accepted a plea deal for third-degree sexual abuse, according to court documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.

He pleaded guilty in Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County on May 14. The final verdict was entered on June 7.

Judge Melissa Anderson-Seeber will sentence Dubon Benitez in the next few weeks. He faces up to ten years in prison.

Dubon Benitez is being held by the Iowa Department of Corrections pending sentencing. The Department of Corrections has filed a warrant with the state demanding that Dubon Benitez not be released after serving his sentence but be immediately turned over to federal authorities to begin deportation proceedings.

ICE did not disclose whether Dubon Benitez arrived with a parent or as an unaccompanied minor placed with an adult by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

His connection to the victim, whose identity is protected because of his age, was not described in court records. The district attorney declined to provide any further information beyond what was included in court records.

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On Tuesday, New York police arrested a 25-year-old man from Ecuador in connection with the rape of a 13-year-old girl in a Queens park in the middle of the day.

The suspect, Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, is said to have approached a boy and a girl in the park and attacked the girl with a machete in his hand.