Blue-state county judges more lenient on immigrants for child sex crimes than U.S. offenders: report

Nearly 10 percent of all sex crimes against children in one Maryland county involved defendants who were illegal immigrants from Central American countries, according to a new report, which also found they received more lenient sentences than U.S. offenders.

A Fox45 investigation found that the Baltimore County State's Attorney filed 99 child sex offense cases between January 1, 2023, and the end of May 2024. Of those, nine defendants during the 17-month period were illegal immigrants from Central American countries.

The outlet cited court documents that it said showed all three convicted people received lenient sentences. An illegal immigrant convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl received a 25-year sentence reduced to 18 months, while another, arrested on multiple counts of sexual misconduct against minors, received five years of supervised probation.

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June 6, 2024: Migrants line up at the southern border in San Diego. (Fox News)

A spokesperson for the trial court told the outlet: “While we cannot comment on individual cases, judges base their decisions on many different factors that are often unique to each case.”

“One such factor may be the understanding that an individual who is subject to ICE or other federal agency custody will be taken into custody by ICE or another federal agency immediately upon completion of the state-imposed sentence,” they said, noting that another factor is the terms of the plea agreement, which judges can accept or reject.

The outlet found that in three cases similar to those involving illegal immigrants, black defendants received prison sentences of four years or more, and that two of the 11 closed cases involving black defendants would have resulted in prison sentences of 12 years or more.

But the number of illegal immigrants among the alleged child sex offenders is likely to fuel concerns about a wave of migrant-related crime that Republicans have highlighted in the midst of an election year when the ongoing crisis at the southern border has become a major political issue.

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FILE – A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agent is seen in Ohio, June 19, 2018. Image courtesy of ICE/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (Collection Smith/Gado/Getty Images)

This week, former President Trump again sought to link the number of high-profile crimes committed against illegal immigrants to the policies of the Biden administration.

“Kamala Harris was appointed border czar, as you know, in March of 2021, and since then, millions and millions of illegal immigrants have flooded into our country, and countless Americans have been killed by migrant crime because of her willful demolition of American borders and American laws,” Trump said on a call with reporters.

Trump contrasted his border security policies with those of his administration. Just as the Biden administration rolled back many of his policies after taking office, he pledged to abandon Biden's policies if elected.

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The Biden administration has blamed the crisis on Republicans in Congress, who have failed to approve funding and reforms to a system it calls “broken.” In response to Trump’s comments, Harris’ campaign pointed to policies he implemented while in office, as well as recent signs calling for mass evictions at the Republican National Convention.

“Donald Trump’s only ‘plan’ to secure our border is to rip mothers from their children and display a few xenophobic signs at the Republican National Convention. He derailed the toughest bipartisan deal on border security in a generation because for Donald Trump, it’s never been about securing the border — it’s always about himself. He can make up all the lies he wants, but the fact is that there is only one candidate in this race who will fight for real solutions to help secure our nation’s border, and that’s Vice President Harris,” Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in response.

Get the latest updates on the ongoing border crisis from Fox News' Digital Immigration Hub.