Maryland and Missouri are not border states.
New York touches Canada, not Mexico. However, all three appeared in shocking headlines this week in connection with alleged kidnappings, murders or rapes blamed on illegal immigrants who attacked girls and women.
In Texas, two more illegals are accused of strangling a 12-year-old girl for motives that remain unknown.
The string of crimes comes as the Biden administration continues to struggle to deal with illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Victor Martinez Hernandez, 23, faces charges of first-degree murder and rape after police allege he attacked Rachel Morin, 37, on a trail in Bel Air, Maryland, on Aug. 5, 2023.
Morin was not his first alleged victim.
"We all suspected that Rachel was not his first victim," Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said after the arrest. "It is my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States illegally after committing the brutal murder of a young woman in El Salvador … in January of 2023."
Martinez Hernandez entered the U.S. illegally in February 2023, according to authorities. The following month, a woman and her 9-year-old daughter were attacked in a home invasion in Los Angeles.
DNA collected in that case later provided a match to Morin's. He spent 10 months criss-crossing the country until police arrested him in Oklahoma this week.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ARRESTED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT RAPE OF 13-YEAR-OLD IN NEW YORK PARK
In New York City, the NYPD responded to a 1 a.m. 911 call earlier this week after a group of good Samaritans encountered a wanted rape suspect accused of tying two 13-year-olds together in a park, gagging them and raping one before stealing their cellphones.
They arrested Christian Geovanny Inga-Landi, 25, after the group of citizens cornered him and prevented his attempts to fight his way out.
He entered the U.S. illegally through Eagle Pass, Texas, in 2021, according to authorities. He was captured and released, but DNA collected at the time provided the match to the water bottle, prosecutors said.
An immigration judge ordered his removal in 2022, but he remained in the country to commit the attack.
In Houston, police arrested two illegals from Venezuela accused of strangling a 12-year-old local girl and dumping her body in a creek.
Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, face capital murder charges in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray, city police said Thursday.
Both suspects illegally crossed the border through El Paso on separate occasions, sources told Fox News. Both had been captured by Border Patrol and released into the U.S.
Jocelyn had snuck out of her family's apartment to call her 13-year-old boyfriend, who told police he overheard two men's voices. Surveillance video from a nearby 7-Eleven shows the men approaching her and walking her toward a bridge where police believe the murder took place.
Her body was discovered in the creek below.
In Missouri, state troopers on Monday arrested five illegals accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl in Indiana.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING INDIANA TEEN
The girl's father reported her missing, and police located the suspect vehicle near one of her phone pings.
Police found the girl unharmed in the back of the vehicle and arrested Mexican nationals Arturo Eustaquio, 41; Noe Guzman Hernandez, 24; and Daniel Ruiz Lopez, 19; as well as Hondurans Carlos Funez, 56 and Marlon Aguilar, 44.
All five came into the country illegally and were being held without bail on kidnapping charges.
In its monthly update Thursday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 117,900 encounters between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, a decrease of about 9% from the prior month.
Fox News' Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Bradford Betz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
