News/Commentary

String of alleged migrant sex crimes has Nantucket parents fearful for their children

September 30, 2024 | | Print Article

Parents on the island of Nantucket are officially freaking out after federal agents apprehended five illegal immigrants for a whole list of alleged crimes including sexually assaulting children.

Among those criminals is a member of the vicious MS-13 gang.

One of the Massachusetts parents living on Nantucket, an island off Cape Cod, is Erik Evans. He’s resided there for 31 years and he has an 8-year-old daughter. The ICE arrests show just how much the area has changed in the last few years and he sounded off to Fox News Digital over it. The tourists leave when summer ends, but the illegal immigrants stay and commit heinous crimes almost unheard of in the area.

“How are these past five people that have gotten arrested that are rapists and [violent criminals] working here and walking through our grocery store and passing by us at the gas station? It just … it’s not what Nantucket once was,” Evans sadly commented.

(Video Credit: Fox News Digital)

“I’m very happy that ICE was here and was able to do their job and get rid of at least some of the bad people that are on the island. There’s obviously many, many more. And, as a community, it scares me. As a father, it truly scares me, and I would like to see more being done,” Evans added.

It’s a sentiment felt around the nation as the Biden/Harris administration has brought in millions of illegal immigrants and seeded them in cities and communities throughout the country. Crime has exploded and parents everywhere now fear for their children. But when it’s in the wealthy areas such as Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Cape Cod, it makes headlines. Not so much when it is in rural America.

Evans is a construction worker. He noted that Nantucket’s ” wealthy seasonal residents who want ‘everything done yesterday’ have attracted an influx of illegal migrants,” according to Fox News Digital.

“Tommy Hilfiger, former Secretary of State John Kerry, actor Ben Stiller, and actress Kathie Lee Gifford are among the rich and powerful who own homes on the idyllic island with a population of about 14,000,” the media outlet reported.

“They can cut wood or they can bang nails,” Evans remarked. “And, you know, I wonder who’s hiring these people. Do they do background checks on them?”

Cheap labor and the attempt to shift voter demographics have brought in predators who are now stalking the island for children.

“On Sept. 10, 28-year-old Salvadoran migrant Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo was charged with one count of child rape with a 10-year age difference and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14,” Fox News Digital wrote.

According to RO Boston Field Office Director Todd Lyons, Aldana-Arevalo’s alleged victim was only 12 years old.

“That day, Aldana-Arevalo and Elmer Sola, another Salvadoran migrant charged with 11 counts of sex crimes against a child, which Lyons said took place in Nantucket, were quietly taken to the mainland in handcuffs via ferry,” Fox News Digital stated.

“Sola was arraigned, charged, and released with an ankle monitor on Aug. 14 on the condition he stays away from the victim and the victim’s family, according to the Nantucket Current. But, nine days later, he returned to court after allegedly violating the pretrial conditions of his release,” the outlet continued.

And the list of sexual perverts who are illegal immigrants just keeps growing.

“On Sept. 11, agents returned to the iconic vacation site to arrest illegal Brazilian migrant Geon do Amaral Belafronte and Guatemalan illegal immigrant Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez. Both had committed sex crimes against Nantucket residents, Lyons said,” Fox News Digital recounted.

“Belafronte entered the U.S. lawfully in 2018 but left of his own volition after the alleged assault took place in 2021. He re-entered the country illegally and was picked up on an arrest warrant in March. After his arraignment, Nantucket District Court released him on $500 cash bail or a $5,000 surety bond, according to court records and Boston ERO,” the media outlet asserted.

“According to a police report reviewed by the Nantucket Current, Belafronte pinned his alleged victim to the ground with her hands over her head and said ‘I will rape you’ as he licked her lips with his tongue while she kept her mouth closed,” Fox News said.

Then there is the reputed MS-13 gang banger Angel Gabriel Deras-Mejia of El Salvador. He was arrested on Sept. 12 and is considered a “significant threat to the residents of Nantucket.”

“Deras-Mejia was arrested at the Discovery Playground on Old South Road in July. Nantucket Police wrote that he was ‘drunk and cursing, flaring his arms, yelling loudly and distracting all civilians who were at the scene’ and left children at the scene crying. Allegedly, he and the mother of his child were arguing about who would take their child home, according to the Nantucket Current. In August, he was arrested again for assault and battery on a household member,” the news outlet further explained.

Another father, who didn’t want to be named, claimed that one of the gang members was busted right outside his daughter’s preschool.

“It’s a little scary, knowing there are people like that living here,” the father told Fox News Digital. “The reaction from some people is that ‘[Immigrants here] are scared [after the ICE arrests].’ Well, I have kids, and I think it’s scary these people are living here.”

Meanwhile, residents are apparently afraid to speak out in support of ICE.

Evans is fearful for his child’s safety these days, “My daughter goes to school, and after school, she goes over to the Boys and Girls Club. But, I mean, they walk there. … And the number of kids, there’s never enough chaperones or people that can really keep an eye on all of these kids.”

He also pointed out that alarm system companies have a booming business on the island now.

“Our local paper comes out every Thursday. And the crime report … is dramatically much larger in the past few years than what it used to be,” he commented. “There’s always at least 15 to 20 different people that are in the court report, and those episodes stem anywhere from a lot of drunk driving, OUI arrests, [and] many home invasions. Domestic abuse drugs.

“Obviously, you know, we’re not really sure where there is a safe place anymore,” Evans lamented. “I never foresaw what we have now. And it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.”

Latest posts by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles