A Massachusetts mother has told the nation she’s worried about her kids and their safety as two illegal immigrants who flocked to the Bay State are in custody for alleged sex crimes against minors.
Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston arrested unlawfully present Colombian citizen Mateo Hincapie Cardona on Oct. 29 after the Suffolk County House of Corrections failed to honor a detainer, releasing him 10 days earlier, according to authorities.
The Boston Police Department took the 28-year-old into custody on Oct. 16 on charges of enticing a child under 16, distribution of obscene matter, and lascivious posing and exhibiting a child in the nude.
Cardona was arraigned in Charlestown District Court on the day of his arrest, and ERO Boston filed a detainer — a request that local or state law enforcement “maintain custody of the noncitizen for a period not to exceed 48 hours beyond the time the individual would otherwise be released.”
ERO Boston saw the Suffolk County House of Corrections turn down the request, with immigration officers later finding and arresting Cardona in East Boston, authorities said.
Cardona is said to have entered the country on April 26, with border patrol agents encountering him near Lukeville, Ariz., where they arrested and released him the same day on personal recognizance.
Holden resident Stephanie Mulroy, a mother of four school-aged children, highlighted the case in a Wednesday appearance on Fox News, calling the alleged crimes “heinous.”
“That’s just one person out of thousands that are wandering our streets, in our schools, in our hotels and shelters across this state,” Mulroy told America Reports co-anchor Sandra Smith. “Parents can’t just let their children walk downtown to get a soda without wondering who might be intercepting them on the way. It’s terrifying.”
Two days after ERO Boston arrested Cardona, officers took a 36-year-old Brazilian fugitive, Andre Tiago Lucas, into custody in Bourne in connection with rape of a 13-year-old child in his native country, according to authorities.
Convicted of rape of a vulnerable person and sentenced to nine years and four months in prison in Brazil in December 2016, Lucas reportedly fled his country, settling in Massachusetts before his sentence.
Mulroy, a member of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee and Holden Select Board, said while she’s worried about her kids and their safety, she also has compassion. She recounted how the Bay State “has been diverse” as she attended school in the 1980s with non-English speaking classmates.
“Our right-to-shelter law that was created in the ’80s has been abused and misinterpreted by Maura Healey during the course of her entire administration,” Mulroy said of the governor, “so much so that she has created the commonwealth to become basically a magnet for criminals.”
Massachusetts remains the only state in the country to have a “right to shelter” law since enacting it in 1983, with the legislation guaranteeing emergency shelter for only families with children and women pregnant with their first child.
As the migrant crisis has strained the emergency system to capacity for months, Healey’s critics are slamming the governor for not prioritizing U.S. citizens first, especially veterans.
Healey doubled down earlier this week on her stance from last week that she lacks immigration enforcement authority and that she won’t use Massachusetts State Police to assist in President-elect Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Healey has also said she wants to see Trump make good on his border-related promises.
Mulroy told Fox News that she’s working with Massachusetts GOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale to get a Republican candidate “lined up for the next (gubernatorial) election,” in 2026.
“She is absolutely hypocritical,” Mulroy said of Healey’s views. “She’s relying on emotional appeals of people and not taking into account the facts.”
“The facts are we have a housing crisis here in Massachusetts,” Mulroy added, “which she seems to be very vocal about, but makes no means or no motions to actually deport or remove the people who are using our right-to-shelter law in an abusive way so that young moms, homeless people, veterans aren’t able to use the resources that we have here.”
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