In just two days, federal immigration authorities arrested four illegal immigrants on a range of sex offenses on an upscale Massachusetts island beloved by the liberal elite.
According to multiple press releases from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), deportation officers arrested five individuals, Felix Alberto Pérez Gómez, Elmer Sola, Gian de Amaral Bellafronte and Bryan Daniel Aldana Arevalo, on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, between September 10 and 11. All of the undocumented immigrants had previously been accused of sex crimes against children and other local residents. (RELATED: Kamala Harris caught on discovered video yelling “No to deportation”)
ICE's latest announcement concerns the arrest of Pérez Gómez, a previously deported Guatemalan national who had illegally returned to the United States before being charged with indecent assault and battery on a person over the age of 14. According to The agency said the Guatemalan man was arrested by deportation officers on the island on September 11 and remains in its custody.
According to ICE, Elmer Sola and Bryan Daniel Aldana Arevalo, both Salvadoran nationals, were charged locally with sex crimes against children and were arrested on September 10. Indicted The defendant was charged with three counts of rape of a child and eight counts of indecent assault on a child, while Aldana was charged with one count of rape of a child 10 years younger than him and two counts of indecent assault on a child under the age of 14.
ICE arrest of Elmer Sola. Image provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“Elmer Sola is suspected of illegally entering the United States and then entering the Nantucket community where he committed horrific and despicable crimes against children,” Todd Lyons, director of the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Boston Field Office, said in a press statement.
“ERO Boston officers will not tolerate these threats to the children of our New England neighborhoods,” Lyons continued.
Deportation officers also arrested Jean do Amaral Belafronte on September 11. According to Bellafronte, a Brazilian national living in the United States illegally, was arrested by Nantucket police in June 2021 on suspicion of lewd acts and assault on a person over the age of 14 and was subsequently detained by federal immigration authorities.
Nantucket has long been an island populated by upper-income Democrats.
The median household income for the island's population in 2022 is more than $131,000; According to According to DataUSA, that's well above the median household income in the United States that year. It was slightly below Housing prices have skyrocketed on Nantucket, leading to a housing subsidy program in which $1 million homes are being offered in a lottery. According to New York Post.
President Joe Biden won more than 70% of Nantucket County's votes in the 2020 presidential election. According to County election results compiled by CNN.
US President Joe Biden walks into a bookstore in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on November 24, 2023. The president and his family are on Nantucket for the Thanksgiving holiday. (Photo: Brendan Smiarowski/AFP) (Photo: Brendan Smiarowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Nantucket is also a popular destination for tourists from all over the country, with the island seeing more than 60,000 visitors on its busiest summer days. According to On-site report.
The Obamas enjoy vacationing on the nearby island of Martha's Vineyard, where they purchased a home there worth about $15 million in 2019. Martha's Vineyard drew national media attention in 2022 after Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, flew several illegal immigrants from the state and dropped them off on the wealthy island.
Massachusetts Statewide To be identified The Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that tracks similar laws around the country, considers the area a “sanctuary” jurisdiction. The group cites a 2017 court decision that limits local authorities' ability to detain immigrants wanted by ICE agents.
The ICE arrests were not initially received well by all Nantucket residents.
“This is frightening for a lot of people,” Nantucket School Board member Esmeralda Martinez told the Nantucket Current when news of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids first broke earlier this month. “Most of them don't have criminal records, but people are hiding out because they're afraid that those who are here might be raided simply because they're not here legally.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Martinez to ask whether he still had negative feelings about the ICE raids, given that those arrested have been accused of child sexual abuse and other sex crimes, but the School Committee member did not immediately respond.
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