Guatemalan man accused of sexually abusing toddler in Norwich
Following a two-month investigation into allegations of child abuse and sexual abuse, the Norwich Police Department arrested 33-year-old Rolando Antonio at a Norwich residence.
Antonio was charged with Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a Class D Felony, and Forcible Touching, a Class A Misdemeanor.
According to the investigation, Antonio allegedly sexually abused a 3-year-old child in April.
Chief Reuben Roach says these cases require the involvement of multiple agencies, including the local Child Advocacy Center, the New York State Police Crime Lab for DNA analysis, and interpreters from the New York State Police.
'My heart goes out to the victim and their family. I hope this arrest provides some measure of justice for them,' said Roach.
Rolando was arraigned in Norwich City Court. He is being held on $20,000 bail, with a court appearance scheduled for a later date.
The investigation is ongoing, and further charges are expected.
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Guatemalan man accused of sexually abusing toddler in Norwich
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NBC News
5 days ago
- NBC News
Immigrants who are crime victims and waiting for visas now face deportation
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However, as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, some immigrants who've applied and are in the process of waiting for a U visa have been detained. 'I feel sad. I'm trying to gather my strength, but there are so many things happening here. Many of us are having our rights violated,' said the married father of three children, adding that he's been in the process of obtaining a visa since 2021. Magdalena Metelska, the immigration attorney handling Mendoza Méndez's case, said that other administrations didn't take coercive measures against victims applying for U visas, but that has changed with the second Trump administration. Now, if someone has a visa pending and even been given a work permit notification, like Mendoza Méndez, "it doesn't really matter because these people are also being arrested and detained,' she said. In April, Jose Madrid-Leiva, a Guatemalan immigrant who was waiting for a U visa, was detained in Kansas City. That same month, Guatemalan immigrant Gerber Mazariegos Dávila, who was applying for a U visa, was detained by ICE agents in Atlanta. In June, Esvin Juárez and Rosmeri Miranda-López, a Guatemalan couple with four children whose U visa application had been approved were deported to their homeland. A benefit and a law enforcement tool — with a big backlog The U visa was created by Congress in 2000 through the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) and is reserved for victims of certain crimes who 'have suffered physical or mental harm' and who cooperate with law enforcement or government officials 'in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity,' according to USCIS. 'The U visa is a humanitarian benefit, but it's also a law enforcement tool," explained Hannah Shapiro, supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, which provides legal help to low-income families and individuals. "It requires the individual to cooperate in an investigation or prosecution related to the visa-qualifying offenses, which can be recent or have occurred several years ago.' She added the visa was designed to make communities safer by incentivizing undocumented survivors of domestic abuse and other crimes to contact police and cooperate in investigations, thus helping make abusers accountable. The U visa's benefits include the ability to live and work in the U.S. and a chance to apply for a green card in the future. However, as with other visas for victims of abuse and crime, such as the Special Immigrant Juvenile program, the U.S. government only grants 10,000 U visas per year, which has created a considerable backlog for applicants. There are more than 300,000 people waiting, in addition to qualifying family members, Shapiro explained, and the process can take up to 15 or 20 years. According to USCIS numbers, the government received 266,293 primary U visa applications from fiscal year 2017 through the second quarter of fiscal year 2025. 'This means that if all U visa applications were halted today, it would take more than 20 years to resolve the pending cases. Since fiscal year 2009, USCIS has seen a 2013% increase in pending cases,' USCIS said in a statement sent to Noticias Telemundo. Since June 2021, USCIS has been granting 'good faith determinations' — official documents that validate the legitimacy of the U visa application and protects applicants from deportation while giving them work authorization. Recent changes, fewer protections Immigration experts and attorneys say the Trump administration is now asserting that 'good faith determinations' do not protect people from deportation, leading to detentions of U visa applicants. 'I always carried in my wallet the letter of good faith that ICE had approved for me, which states that I have the right to be in the United States without fear of deportation. But the agents told me they were no longer respecting that. And they took me away,' said Mendoza Méndez. Matthew J. Tragesser, chief of USCIS' Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement to Noticias Telemundo that 'a good faith determination on a pending application for U nonimmigrant status does not protect a foreign national from immigration enforcement.' Tragesser also stated that 'the U visa program is being exploited by foreign scammers and criminals, their corrupt lawyers, and law enforcement officers,' though he did not provide specific figures or cases. 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This is even true if their case was pending and had not been approved,' Shapiro said. The attorney refers to Memorandum 11005.4, which changed the agency's approach to immigration enforcement related to U visa applicants. Among other things, this new directive eliminates proactive victim identification, so ICE officers are no longer required to look for clues or evidence suggesting a foreign national is a victim of a crime when making enforcement decisions. 'With the new Department of Homeland Security rules, these cases are being reopened. So people who were helping the police, who had suffered some type of crime, or were victims of a very serious crime are now in deportation proceedings,' immigration attorney Benjamín Osorio said. One such case is that of Fredy Hernández Cedillos, a Salvadoran immigrant who has lived in the U.S. since 2009. He was injured during a violent robbery in Virginia in 2010 and has been waiting for a U visa since 2020. 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'Harmed by these delays' The prosecution of these cases made headlines in January, when a Michigan court ruled that a group of crime survivors applying for U visas could move forward with a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security for unjustifiable delays in receiving initial good faith determinations, which, among other things, has prevented them from accessing work permits. "We have several clients who have waited nearly six years without any updates or news, not even an initial acknowledgment of the legitimacy of their case. The court ruled that our clients have been harmed by these delays,' Meredith Luneack, the plaintiffs' attorney, said in a statement. This case is still being reviewed by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The Trump administration has demanded a drastic increase in the immigrant detentions and deportations, with a daily quota of 3,000 arrests. Shapiro, along with other experts, says this pressure has resulted in hundreds of people being detained while attending their immigration court appearances. "You want to do things right and work in this country, but what I see is that the government wants to remove as many people as possible. The fear is going to court and, once we're there, they won't let us out,' Cedillos said. Mendoza Méndez remains detained as he battles in court to stay in the U.S. With a broken voice, he said he hasn't lost hope of returning to his family in Minnesota. "I still have faith and I know we'll be able to get through all of this,' he said.
UPI
6 days ago
- UPI
Ex-Guatemalan mayor has initial U.S. court hearing on drug charge
Aug. 6 (UPI) -- An ex-Guatemalan mayor could spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted for allegedly working to import more than five kilos of cocaine into the United States from his Latin American nation. The U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday in a statement that Romeo Ramos Cruz, 57, was extradited from Guatemala on Monday and present for an initial court hearing on Tuesday in federal court in Washington, D.C. Ramos Cruz, formerly the mayor of Santa Lucia in Guatemala's Escuintla Department in the south-central part of the country only miles to the Pacific Ocean, allegedly abused his authority to coordinate cocaine shipment logistics destined for the illicit U.S. drug market. He was charged on one count of conspiracy. Guatemala has a long history of politicians who either pilfer the public coffers or join the cartel that in recent years has shifted its illegal drug operations into Guatemala via Mexico. DOJ says from 2002 to last year the former chief of the Guatemalan city of nearly 59,000 inhabitants served as a "key" player in a Guatemala-based trafficking cartel that's sole purpose was to transport cocaine to the United States. According to court records, in one instance he agreed to help disguise a cocaine shipment from Venezuela to Guatemala as cement, and prepared an official letter on government letterhead in order to evade inspection by Guatemalan authorities. The United States has maintained a more dynamic relationship with Guatemala over the last 25 years following the end to its bloody 35-year-long civil war, but issues of inequality and exploitation of its native population still persist. "I don't understand why the US supports corrupt politicians that later are against their own policies and want to govern forever changing laws and constitutions," Carlos Torrebiarte, VP of Guatemala's right-leaning Association for the Defense of Private Property, posted last Tuesday on social media. "It happened with Noriega, Sadam, Ortega, Lula, Petro, in Afghanistan, etc.," he said. He claimed that it's "happening in Guatemala with Arevalo," in reference to the country's center-left President Bernardo Arevalo. The arrest of and extradition of Ramos Cruz was a coordinated international effort by law enforcement from the FBI, DEA, ICE, INTERPOL and Guatemalan authorities part of the so-called "Operation Take Back America" initiative in the Trump administration's crackdown on migration. The former Guatemalan politician faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
Newsweek
05-08-2025
- Newsweek
MAGA Calls for Democratic Rep To Be Deported Over Guatemala Comments
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. MAGA Republicans are calling for Democratic Representative Delia Ramirez to be deported after she said, "I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American." Newsweek contacted the White House and a representative for Ramirez for comment on Tuesday via email outside regular working hours. Why It Matters President Donald Trump has made cracking down on immigration a central priority, overseeing an unprecedented surge in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, mass deportation efforts targeting major cities and a move to end birthright citizenship. The controversy surrounding Ramirez's comments cuts to the heart of ongoing tensions in the U.S. over immigration and questions of national identity, which have been intensified by the Trump administration's "America First" agenda. Representative Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, speaks during a news conference on reintroducing the Neighbors Not Enemies Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January 22. Representative Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Illinois, speaks during a news conference on reintroducing the Neighbors Not Enemies Act on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on January To Know Ramirez made the comment about being a proud Guatemalan while speaking in Spanish at a summit in Mexico City over the weekend. A clip of her speaking went viral on social media, sparking backlash from Republicans and conservative commentators, some of whom called for her to be deported or removed from Congress. Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee wrote on X: "Denaturalize, deport, and kick her off Homeland Committee. We know where her allegiances lie." The official X account for the Department of Homeland Security also weighed in, responding to the video with a quote from former President Theodore Roosevelt about Americans needing allegiance to the United States and calling for the condemnation of any other loyalties. "There is no room in this country for hyphenated is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance," the post said. Ramirez, who has represented Illinois in Congress since 2023, is the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. Democrat Rep. Delia Ramirez at a summit in Mexico City this weekend tells the audience while speaking in Spanish: "I'm a proud Guatemalan before I'm an American." — TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 4, 2025 The congresswoman has responded to the criticism, writing on X, "Honoring my Guatemalan ancestry only strengthens my commitment to America." Ramirez described the backlash to her comments as attempts to silence her criticisms of the Trump administration, and she questioned why colleagues who celebrate their Irish or Italian heritage were not subject to the same criticism. "Only those who believe America should not include the children of immigrants or be diverse would attack me—and Americans like me—for honoring my roots," she said in a statement. Ramirez has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration's anti-immigration actions, calling for ICE to be defunded and the resignation of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. She has also described the Trump administration as a "fascist government." What People Are Saying Conservative commentator Jesse Kelly wrote on X: "Denaturalize and deport. I'm not even close to kidding." Conservative activist Charlie Kirk wrote on X: "Any person who values any other country over America does not belong in Congress. Period." Conservative pundit Megyn Kelly wrote on X: "Awesome. Go home." Conservative activist Robby Starbuck wrote on X: "She should be immediately stripped of her elected office and it shouldn't be controversial in the slightest. If you put a foreign nation first, you can't be trusted to represent the United States. Period." What Happens Next The tensions surrounding immigration and concepts of national identity are likely to continue amid the Trump administration's hard-line immigration policies.
