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From Fox News: A member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in a tiny Wisconsin community for allegedly sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter after he had been arrested and released earlier this year in Minneapolis.
Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose grandchildren live less than a mile away from the Prairie du Chien home where the mother and daughter were held against their will and repeatedly victimized, told Fox News Digital that it was only a matter of time before tragedy would strike the community amid the White House’s open-border policies and sanctuary city initiatives.
Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26, assaulted the woman and child “under particularly brutal circumstances,” and attacked his victims “over the course of a period of time,” Prairie du Chien Police Chief Kyle Teynor said at a September 9 press conference following Coronel Zarate’s arrest.
Coronel Zarate was charged with sexual assault, battery, strangulation, suffocation, false imprisonment, child abuse and disorderly conduct in Crawford County Court on Wednesday, WXOW reported. He remains in Crawford County Jail on $10,000 cash bond.
The mother later told police that Coronel Zarate had also assaulted her on September 4, according to a criminal complaint. During that incident, she told police, Coronel Zarate allegedly told her, “I get away with it. I’m a criminal.”
Chief Teynor reportedly said Coronel Zarate had tattoos which signified his association with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang.
After speaking out at the Sept. 9 press conference, Rep. Van Orden has received backlash.
“They’re calling us racists for putting out the fact that a man with organized crime tattoos was let into the country by the Harris border czar – he happens to be Venezuelan,” Van Orden explained.
“”If we don’t have immigrant labor, our dairies, our farms will go out of business. Our dairies will close if we don’t have immigrant labor. I absolutely 100% welcome immigrant labor if they want to come here and work and send remittances back,” he said. “But letting someone into the country with tattoos associated with known immigrant gangs is not OK. We do not welcome criminal illegal immigrants to come here,” he continued.
“Why should a town of 5,500 people . . . be afraid of letting their kids play in their front yard?” Van Orden added. “It wasn’t like this three years ago.”
NEW: Police in Prairie du Chien, a small city in rural Wisconsin w/ a population of just 5,400, announce the arrest of a suspected Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang member who allegedly violently and sexually attacked a woman & injured a juvenile in the process. ICE now involved. pic.twitter.com/aUx8PkPhnx
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 6, 2024
Van Orden spoke out about the case on Sept. 10 in an interview on the Dan O’Donnell Show. Watch below:
Wisconsin Congressman @DerrickVanOrden joins me to discuss a brutal assault by a Venezuelan gang member in…Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin?!? As unbelievable as it seems, it’s true. pic.twitter.com/sHM7kb6AsO
— Dan O’Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) September 9, 2024
“Harris allowed a Venezuelan nation with known gang tattoos enter the country who was arrested multiple times from crimes including strangulation, but released by two sanctuary districts who went on to rape and beat a mother and daughter in SW Wisconsin. This must end,” declared Van Orden in one social media post.
Harris allowed a Venezuelan nation with known gang tattoos enter the country who was arrested multiple times from crimes including strangulation, but released by two sanctuary districts who went on to rape and beat a mother and daughter in SW Wisconsin.
This must end. https://t.co/JS0nurcjNN
— Derrick Van Orden (@derrickvanorden) September 15, 2024
Coronel Zarate is facing felony charges for 2nd Degree Sexual Assault/Use of Force, Child Abuse-Intentionally Cause Harm and Strangulation and Suffocation, as well as 3 misdemeanor charges. https://t.co/2dMbmeFUG0
— WKBT News 8 (@news8news) September 19, 2024
Families in swing state afraid to let kids play outside after Venezuelan migrant attacks mom, child: lawmaker https://t.co/yvRyymR7wX
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 23, 2024
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