A 27-year-old Guatemalan national is behind bars in New Jersey, accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl from her home in Washington Borough earlier this month, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Lester Noe Perez-Amador was arrested within 24 hours of the alleged crime, according to The Daily Wire, which first reported the details of the case. Authorities say the child was located and rescued as she ran toward her home.
Perez-Amador is charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault of a victim under 13, endangering sexual conduct with a child, first-degree kidnapping with bodily injury, and first-degree home invasion burglary. Fox 5 reported the penalties attached to those counts: the aggravated sexual assault charge alone carries a maximum of 25 years to life in prison, kidnapping carries up to life with 25 years of parole ineligibility, and the home invasion burglary count carries up to 20 years.
What Authorities Say Happened
The alleged abduction occurred in the early morning hours of September 5, when, according to DHS, Perez-Amador took the girl from her residence. Authorities said the suspect knew the child, though they have not publicly described the nature of that relationship.
Warren County Prosecutor Jessica L. Cardone praised the multi-agency response in a statement following the arrest.
“When a child in our community is at risk, law enforcement responds as one,” Cardone said. “I witnessed first-hand as all involved agencies worked with focus on one common goal — to bring this child to safety. Protecting our children is a responsibility we take very seriously, and our commitment does not end with an arrest.”
Immigration History at Center of Federal Response
According to DHS, Perez-Amador crossed the southern border illegally and evaded authorities on his way into the United States. In March 2024, the Cameron County Police Department in Texas arrested him on a driving-under-the-influence charge. Local officers transferred him to Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the time, and ICE released him, DHS said.
That release is now the focus of the federal government’s public statement on the case. A Homeland Security spokesperson told The Daily Wire that ICE has lodged an immigration detainer with local authorities, requesting that Perez-Amador be handed over to federal custody for deportation if he is released from the county jail.
“We are urging Washington Township authorities to transfer Perez-Amador into ICE custody so we can do what Biden failed to do the first time — get this criminal illegal alien off of our streets and back to Guatemala where he belongs,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also framed the detainer mechanism as central to federal immigration enforcement, arguing that jurisdictions that decline to honor ICE requests leave people in local custody to return to their communities.
“The safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets is by lodging arrest detainers. Because some sanctuary jurisdictions refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to perpetuate more crimes,” the spokesperson said, adding that “seven of the top 10 safest cities in the United States cooperate with ICE.”
A Case That Fits a Broader Pattern
The New Jersey allegations arrive amid an ongoing national dispute over how state and local law enforcement handle federal immigration detainers — the requests, not court orders, that ICE sends asking jails to hold someone up to 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so agents can take custody. A number of states and municipalities have adopted policies limiting cooperation with those requests, and the resulting standoffs have repeatedly become flashpoints in the debate over immigration enforcement.
For its part, DHS has used the Perez-Amador case to press its argument that the March 2024 release was avoidable and that the current detainer should be honored without delay. The department’s account of his immigration history has not been independently confirmed beyond its own statements and the reporting by The Daily Wire.
The charges against Perez-Amador remain accusations. He has not been convicted of any of the offenses filed in connection with the September 5 incident, and under the American legal system he is presumed innocent unless and until a jury or judge finds otherwise.
It is not yet clear whether Perez-Amador has retained legal counsel, whether he has entered a plea, or when he is next scheduled to appear in court. Requests for additional information from the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office and ICE were not immediately detailed in the initial reporting.
What is documented is the sequence authorities describe: a Texas DUI arrest in March 2024, a transfer to ICE custody, a release, and then less than a year and a half later, an early-morning abduction in a small New Jersey borough that ended with a child running home and a suspect arrested within a day.
The case now sits at the intersection of two systems — the criminal courts in Warren County and the federal immigration apparatus in Washington — with each side pointing to the other as the last line of defense.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/illegal-immigrant-kidnaps-sexually-assaults-6-year-old-child