Officials say the Bahamian bred teenager charged with raping an eight-year-old girl and leaving her for dead is in the United States illegally.
Seventeen-year-old Milagro Cunningham is a Bahamian native. Authorities say he escaped the notice of immigration authorities after three burglary arrests last year because his cases were handled in the juvenile justice system.
The U.S. Border Patrol chief in West Palm Beach says if Cunningham had been booked into the main jail, he would have been noticed. An immigration spokeswoman says Cunningham arrived in 2003 on a visitor’s visa from the Bahamas and overstayed the short-term limit.
The girl spent about seven hours Sunday buried under debris in a trash bin after being kidnapped from her godmother’s apartment.
Cunningham will be charged as an adult for the repulsive crime.
Certain law enforcement agents are joining the growing cry in the US for tougher immigration policies regarding Bahamians. One suggestion is to remove US pre-clearance facilities from the Bahamas’ airports enabling closer scrutiny for persons entering from the crime infested nation.
