Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw blasted the federal government’s handling of illegal immigration days after three Guatemalan men were arrested and charged with kidnapping and assaulting a woman in the county.
‘This morning I’m just here to deliver a message. And the message is, don’t think for a second that what happens on the Mexican border doesn’t affect us here, Bradshaw said during Wednesday morning’s news conference.
‘Here we have three illegals who should never have been in this country and who have committed a very serious crime: kidnapping and sexual violence.’
The three men are accused of forcing a woman into a car around 1 a.m. Monday morning and sexually assaulting her at two locations west of Lake Worth Beach.
Andres Felipe Morales, 29; Darinel Ordonez Jjimenez, 30; and Marcos Felipe Ramirez, 31, were arrested and booked into the Palm Beach County Jail around 10 p.m. 19 the same day.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw criticized the federal government’s handling of illegal immigration during a news conference Wednesday
The conference came just days after three illegal immigrants from Guatemala were arrested and charged in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a Palm Beach County woman.
Andres Felipe Morales, 29, is accused of sexual assault and false imprisonment
Their bond was set at $200,000 each. Morales is charged with sexual assault and false imprisonment, while the others were charged with criminal conspiracy.
‘They shouldn’t be here! It’s the same thing we saw where the student was killed by the person who was here illegally,’ Bradshaw said, referring to the Laken Riley murder.
The 22-year-old University of Georgia student was killed by Jose Ibarra, a Venezuelan man who entered the country illegally, while out jogging on February 22.
‘Folks, our border is the sea. There is no fence there. We’re the fence,’ Bradshaw continued.
“For them to be in this country to be able to commit this type of crime is unconscionable. The federal government has put the American people at risk.’
The sheriff said federal intelligence agencies had confirmed that ‘the most dangerous gangs in the world’ originating from Venezuela had moved to Miami.
“They make MS-13 look like school kids,” Bradshaw added.
He appeared to take a shot at the Biden administration’s handling of border security by repeating a false claim popularized by U.S. Senate candidate Mark Lamb.
The abduction took place near John Prince Park (pictured), west of Lake Worth Beach, officials said
In his remarks, Bradshaw referenced the killing of 22-year-old college student Laken Riley, who was killed while jogging last month by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela
The sheriff said Venezuelan gangs that ‘make MS-13 look like school kids’ had moved to Miami (Pictured: Migrants surrender to US authorities in El Paso, Texas)
“Forget about the 3 million people who came over the border, put their hands up to the Border Patrol and say I give up, you know, they get the cell phone and the gift card and all that kind of garbage,” Bradshaw said.
While some migrants are provided phones by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they can only be used to access a monitoring app called SmartLink.
Claims that migrants are given gift cards and other incentives such as plane tickets have been denied.
“What about the 1.5 million people that they’re calling ‘get away?'” Bradshaw continued. ‘These are the people who don’t want to be caught by the Border Patrol because they’re gang members, they’re wanted. They’re packing fentanyl. ‘
The term “get away” refers to illegal border crossers who are not apprehended and not returned to their country of origin.
Bradshaw claimed to have seen surveillance video of a group of men dressed in military fatigues, ‘wearing carpet on their shoes so they wouldn’t leave footprints’ creeping across the border.
‘What do you think they’re here for? They are not here to play the lottery. They are going to do bad things, he said.
“These idiots in Washington DC need to close this border. In order to clean this up, they have to stop what comes over this border, and it can be done.’
Supreme Court Justice Edgar Gavidia (left) told Venezuelan media that 100 prisoners had been released since Friday as part of a prison reform initiative
Yare prison, known for its harsh conditions and outbreaks of gang violence, is among the facilities letting inmates go
Gavidia said the court looked at inmates ‘case by case’ to ‘(give) justice to those who at some point in their lives made a mistake’ (pictured: prisoners at El Rodeo in July 2016)
Supreme Court Justice Edgar Gavidia confirmed that 100 prisoners have already been released from detention centers in Venezuela.
“Since Friday, we have carried out an operation in the state of Miranda, looking into preventive centers and prisons,” Gavidia told local media.
‘We look at each case on a case by case basis and give justice to those who at some point in their lives made a mistake in order to speed up justice.’
Among the prisons letting people go is Yare, notorious for gang violence and overcrowding.
Sister facility Yare II and a third prison called El Rodeo are among those included in the reform initiative.
Speaking to DailyMail.com on Monday, Miami immigration attorney Rolando Vazquez characterized the released detainees as ‘murderers’.
‘They are thugs. These are prisons where there are thugs, murderers,” he said. “Americans need to know that they are coming to the border.”