Haitian migrant in Massachusetts accused of raping teen
A Haitian migrant has been charged with raping a 15-year-old girl at a hotel serving as a migrant shelter in Massachusetts, authorities said Thursday.
Corey B. Alvarez, 26, was arrested Thursday pleaded not guilty at his arraignment that day in Hingham District Court on a charge of aggravated rape of a child. He legally entered the United States through New York in June 2023, according to James Covington, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations unit in Boston. But it was unclear what specific immigration program Mr. Alvarez entered the country through.
The charges come as Boston and other cities grapple with questions about migrant housing and amid an intense debate across the country over U.S. immigration policy. The killing of a 22-year-old woman on the University of Georgia campus in February became a political flashpoint when a Venezuelan migrant was charged with the crime, with Republicans including former President Donald J. Trump blaming the death for President Biden’s policies. Such statements have struck many liberals as inflammatory rhetoric.
National data show that there is no causal link between immigration and crime in the country, and that the growth of illegal immigration is not leading to higher local crime rates. Lots of research to have found it That immigrants Are less likely than people born in the United States commit crimes.
In the Massachusetts case, both Mr. Alvarez and the teen, who is disabled, lived at the Comfort Inn in Rockland, a suburb of Boston, according to Rockland police. It was not clear whether the girl was also a migrant.
The Comfort Inn is part of a state and federal program to house migrant families, the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. There are approximately 7,500 families registered in the emergency shelter system across Massachusetts, with just under 3,900 of them in hotels or motels, according to government figures Friday. The state reported this in December just over 3,500 families receive emergency housing were migrants, refugees or asylum seekers.
After police responded to the scene, the girl was transported to South Shore Hospital for treatment, authorities said, and Mr. Alvarez’s room was searched, but officers found no visible evidence of the crime. They added that Mr. Alvarez agreed to come to the police station for questioning, and that he was not arrested when he left with the officers.
Mr. Alvarez is currently being held without bail pending a hearing on March 22, which he has surrendered his passport. The investigation is ongoing.
The ICE unit in Boston has assigned an immigration detainer for Mr. Alvarez to the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office. This means the agency has been asked to notify the federal agency before Mr. Alvarez is released so that ICE can take custody and initiate deportation proceedings against him.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey told WBZ News on Friday that Mr. Alvarez “was vetted by the state in terms of a background check and a check that we do for all entries into our shelter, and he approved that.”
On XHouse Speaker Mike Johnson blamed Mr. Alvarez’s presence in the country on “the president’s reckless border policies.” He added: “There are no reasons why such tragedies can occur.”
Brian Kelley, Mr. Alvarez’s lawyer, said in an interview Saturday that he was frustrated by the harsh anti-migrant rhetoric. He said critics have “really crossed the line of presumption of innocence and just assumed this young man did this.”
He added that no one “makes these assumptions about any other group of people coming to the United States.”
Jenna Russell, Jacey Fortin And Hamed Aleaziz reporting contributed.