A migrant who was arrested at the border for crossing illegally before being released has been accused of raping a five-year-old girl on Long Island.
Wilson Castillo Diaz, 26, of Westbury, is accused of raping the young victim at an undisclosed location on Oct. 16, according to Nassau County police.
Diaz, who illegally crossed the U.S. border near Rio Grande, Texas, in April 2014, was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents and later released.
He later failed to appear for an immigration court hearing.
Details about the circumstances of the alleged rape, including the relationship between Diaz and the victim, were not available.
The child was taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation.
Diaz was arrested Oct. 22 and arraigned the next day on charges of rape, attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.
Wilson Castillo Díaz, 26, was charged with rape, attempted rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
Diaz, who had illegally crossed the U.S. border near Rio Grande, Texas, in 2014, was released by Border Patrol after he was issued a notice to appear in immigration court, which he did not attend.
He is currently being held on $200,000 bail.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been notified of the arrest.
This incident comes after the high-profile murder of nursing student Laken Riley, 22, in Georgia, allegedly at the hands of an illegal immigrant.
The suspect, José Ibarra, from Venezuela, had crossed into the United States in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022. He was released by authorities due to lack of detention space.
Riley was going to run to the University of Georgia campus in Athens when Ibarra inflicted blunt force trauma to her head and “suffocated her in a manner unknown to jurors,” according to his indictment.
He also claims that Ibarra ‘severely disfigured his head by hitting it several times with a rock.’
Immigration has become a major campaign issue ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, after an unprecedented surge in immigrants strained budgets in cities including New York, Chicago and Denver.
Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, has escalated his anti-immigrant rhetoric by suggesting that immigrants commit crimes more often than American citizens, although evidence does not support those claims.
In late September, Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris toured a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and called for further tightening of asylum restrictions as she sought to project a tougher stance on illegal migration and address one of its greater vulnerabilities in elections. .
She balanced tough talk about border enforcement with calls for a better way to receive immigrants legally.
The Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector, which includes El Paso and all of southern New Mexico, is currently the third busiest in the country, with only Tucson and San Diego having more encounters.
Laken Riley, 2, was found dead on the University of Georgia campus on February 22.
Riley’s accused killer, José Ibarra, had crossed into the United States from El Paso, Texas, in September 2022.
This part of the border has become increasingly deadly for migrants, many of whom have died from the extreme heat.
In May, U.S. officials encountered 23,478 immigrants in El Paso.
Nationwide, 241,022 immigrants were detained trying to enter the United States illegally.
At least 2.2 million migrants crossed US borders in fiscal year 2024, according to federal statistics.
