A suspect charged with the rape of a teenage girl had earlier been apprehended for entering the country illegally but was released into the United States by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The 29-year-old Grevi Geovani Rivera Zavala from Honduras was arrested and charged with the first-degree rape of a teenage girl in Prattville, Alabama, last weekend.
“This rape never should have happened,” Autauga County District Attorney CJ Robinson told local media of the incident.
Zavala was an illegal alien who first arrived at the southern border in November 2021 using a fake name.
At the time, Zavala was detained at the Texas border under the fake name.
Despite having a criminal record in Honduras, Zavala was processed and quickly released into the U.S. interior by the DHS—ending up in Prattville, Alabama, where he worked illegally in the local construction industry.
Random Attack
Zavala allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl in the women’s restroom of a restaurant on Saturday. According to the victim’s testimony, Zavala forced her into a stall in the restroom, held her down, and raped her.
According to Robinson, the girl did not know Rivera-Zavala, and the incident was a random attack.
A judge denied Rivera-Zavala bond on Monday after assessing him as a potential flight risk and a threat to the community. As part of the reason for denying bond, the judge cited Aniah’s Law, an Alabama amendment that allows the denial of bail for several felonies, including murder, rape, kidnapping, etc.
Zavala currently remains in the Autauga County Jail.
“I’m not interested in discussing his immigration status with the federal government. I’m not interested in his deportation,” Robinson told local broadcaster WSFA12.
“We’re not interested in negotiating with the feds,” he said. “They can take custody of his body when [Department of Corrections] is done with him. We aren’t going to negotiate for a lesser charge so the feds can deport him.”
“For what he did, the maximum punishment is 99 years. Quite honestly, I don’t think that’s enough,” Robinson said.
Consequences of the Biden administration’s expansive “catch and release” policy, such as these, have frustrated state and local law enforcement officials for years.
“It concerns me that the feds will ship detainees to my facility, then release them to the streets of my community under some technicality,” an Ohio Sherriff said in 2021 when he announced withdrawing his cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Last week, former ICE director Tom Homan called the border policy the “largest homeland security failure since 9/11.”
