Earlier this week, an illegal immigrant was arrested after confessing to kidnapping and raping a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint near New Orleans.
23-year-old Diego Rodriguez-Salvador was arrested on Sept. 4th after he allegedly lured the girl, who was reportedly the sister of one of his friends, into his car, drove her to his home in Kenner, Louisiana, and raped her.
The Kenner Police Department said that Rodriguez-Salvador, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, allegedly asked the girl to drive to a nearby store with him. She accepted, but he quickly began taking them in the wrong direction of the store, per WWLTV.
When she noticed they were not going to the store as initially told, Rodriguez-Salvador took out a knife and threatened her, then drove her to his home, and raped her before returning her to her neighborhood and driving away.
The crime was reported around 7:45 p.m. that evening, and Rodriguez-Salvador led police on a brief manhunt, but his white 2013 Nissan Altima was found. Police made phone contact with the suspect and he agreed to surrender himself and be taken into custody. Local outlet WSDU reported that he admitted to the crime, citing police.
Kenner police Chief Keith Conley described Rodriguez-Salvador as “a ghost,” citing a lack of information about him, per WSDU. It is unclear how long ago he entered the country.
“This man’s a coward. Overpowered a 13-year-old girl. As a father I’m saddened, and as police chief, I’m furious,” said Conley, per local outlet FOX8.
“Diego has undocumented status in the United States and detectives are working closely with Homeland Security Investigations to obtain any additional information that could assist in his identification or apprehension,” the Kenner Police Department said in a statement.
Rodriguez-Salvador has been charged with second-degree kidnapping and second-degree rape of a juvenile victim.
Neighbors are startled by the crime, with one neighbor saying, “I have a daughter and I’m scared to let her out, to play. It’s crazy. Never heard of that around here,” per FOX8.
This is the latest of many crimes committed by illegal immigrants since the start of the Biden administration. In late August, one such immigrant, another Honduran national, was sentenced to life in prison after the repeated assaults and attempted murder of two preteen girls.
46-year-old Jose Orbin Martinez-Lopez was given life in prison after he s*xually assaulted the girls, 11 and 12 at the time, and then broke into their home in September 2020, attempting to kill them and burn down their home.
Martinez-Lopez had s*xually assaulted both girls multiple times before the night of the fire. However, it was only after the girls told family members about his assaults that he broke into their Houston-area home and attempted to kill them.
“He slashed one girl’s throat with a box cutter and when her sister came to help, he locked both in a room and set a fire inside the house. He then fled,” read an announcement, in part, from the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Both girls survived the ordeal.
Another instance revolves around Guatemalan national Jose Chan, who had been previously deported for unlawfully entering the U.S., but was able to return and s*xually assault a 14-year-old.
