After news broke Wednesday that a previously deported illegal immigrant has been charged with first-degree rape of a juvenile in Shelby County, Congressman Bradley Byrne (AL-1) reaffirmed that supporting enhanced border security “is a fight worth fighting.”
In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Byrne referred to the crime allegedly committed by 27-year-old Amancio Betancourt Martinez as a “horror story.”
With the federal government’s partial shutdown negotiations stalemated on the issue of border security, Byrne asked, “When will the madness end?”
Byrne continued, “We have heard horror story after horror story about illegal immigrants who break the laws and hurt American citizens, but Democrats have chosen to shut down a portion of the federal government instead of supporting stronger border security.”
“We must take action to prevent illegal immigrants from entering our country. This is a fight worth fighting,” he concluded.
Byrne is strongly weighing a potential challenge to Sen. Doug Jones (D-Mountain Brook) next year.
You can read more about Martinez here.
The Mexican native and citizen has been charged with first-degree rape in Shelby County after returning to the United States illegally. He was previously deported in 2015 for a felony drug trafficking conviction in Alabama.
Martinez, who reportedly resides in Maylene, was indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Birmingham for illegally re-entering the country via the southern border. His arraignment is set for Thursday, January 10 before Magistrate Judge Herman N. Johnson Jr.
Martinez’s federal indictment came in the wake of his state arrest for rape earlier in December. According to the Shelby County Reporter, the Alabaster Police Department detained the illegal immigrant and charged him with the Class A felony.
Per his arrest warrant, Martinez allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with the juvenile victim “by forcible compulsion” on November 26.
When he was arrested by Alabaster PD, Martinez was already on probation stemming from his 2014 guilty plea in the same county on a felony cocaine trafficking charge. When he entered into a plea agreement on this drug charge, he was originally sentenced to 10 years in prison, but his sentence was split to three years jail time followed by two years of supervised probation. He then received 542 days of jail credit reduced from his prison sentence when he was deported on December 31, 2015.
Through the 2014 plea agreement, two additional cocaine trafficking charges and two unlawful distribution of a controlled substance charges were dropped against Martinez when he pleaded guilty.
Because he was on probation when he was arrested on the rape charge in December, his probation was revoked. This means that the entirety of his original ten-year prison sentence could be reinstated.
Federal authorities became aware of his illegal return to the United States after the Alabaster Police Department contacted the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in November when the local agency began investigating the rape.
Federal court records outline that federal and local law enforcement officials then went to a job site where Martinez has been employed in Shelby County and fingerprinted and positively identified him.
The fingerprint check also allegedly associated Martinez with an FBI number that showed previous immigration arrests. Court records also noted that investigators reviewed Martinez’s file, and it revealed there was no documentation that he had applied for, or was given, any permission for legal admission back into the country since being deported.
Martinez remains in Shelby County Jail on his probation revocation.
On Wednesday, Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-5) also criticized Democratic leaders for obstructing “Republican efforts to secure our border to help prevent awful crimes like this one against Americans.”
In a statement to Yellowhammer News, Brooks outlined that the crime allegedly committed by 27-year-old Amancio Betancourt Martinez “was entirely avoidable.”
“The heinous rape committed by a previously deported illegal alien against an American juvenile in Shelby County, Alabama is exactly why we need stronger border security,” Brooks said.
He added, “This sickening crime was entirely avoidable, yet Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer continue to obstruct Republican efforts to secure our border to help prevent awful crimes like this one against Americans.”
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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