An undocumented migrant who was cut loose in the US after illegally crossing the border was arrested in Florida over the weekend for allegedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in his van.
Marvin Perez Lopez, a 20-year-old Guatemalan native, allegedly confessed to snatching the girl from outside her home in Lake Worth and forcing her into his vehicle last week, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said Monday.
The girl’s mom allegedly found Lopez attacking the girl when she went looking for her daughter outside their apartment building.
After the mother started banging on the van windows and screaming for help, the alleged perp — who lives in the same building as the victim — fled the scene, CBS12 reported.
When sheriff’s deputies later went to Lopez’s home, they spotted him escaping through a back window and fleeing into an alleyway.
He was eventually nabbed on Saturday and slapped with a slew of charges, including kidnapping to sexually assault a minor, sexual assault of a victim under 12 and resisting an officer.
Lopez was free in the US after illegally crossing the US-Mexico border in early January, the sheriff’s office said.
He turned himself in to Border Patrol, was listed as an undocumented migrant and given an immigration court date in 2027, authorities added.
“Here’s a Guatemalan, who came into the country illegally was stopped by the border people released, and made his way to South Florida. And now he commits a crime where he held an 11-year-old girl against her will and sexually assaulted her,” Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said.
“We grabbed him. He’s confessed to the crime. So he’s gonna get tried for a capital crime before he even remotely thinks he’s gonna get deported. He’s gonna do the time here first,” the sheriff added.
“The federal government is victimizing the people who live in this country by letting these people in here.”
Lopez is being held at the Palm Beach County jail without bond.