The mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old murdered in Houston in June, called for tougher border security and a second Donald Trump presidency on Thursday.
Addressing the media during a Trump campaign event at the Arizona border Thursday, Alexis Nungaray asked for people to understand her pain and loss.
“I just really, really, really want everybody to really take into consideration how important border control is because we’re losing very innocent people to heinous crimes that shouldn’t be happening in the first place,” she said.
Jocelyn’s body was found in a creek near her home in north Houston in June. Two Venezuelan nationals, Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26, are accused of Jocelyn’s murder.
Their immigration status and their release into the U.S. by U.S. Border Patrol has turned the case into a political flashpoint, and Trump has used Jocelyn’s death as a rallying cry at campaign stops nationally to call for tougher immigration policies
The U.S. Border Patrol apprehended both men earlier this year near El Paso and released them with a future immigration court date.
“Martinez and Pena both illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole, or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location,” an ICE spokesperson said in a statement Friday, Aug. 23.
Debate over detention space
Alexis Nungaray said Thursday that 300 beds were available when the two suspects were released. It is unclear where this statistic came from. ICE said it could not comment on a statistic cited outside of the agency. A spokesperson declined to comment beyond the information about when the two suspects were apprehended by Border Patrol.
Congress appropriated 41,500 beds for immigrant detention nationwide in fiscal year 2024. As of Aug.11, more than 36,000 people are in immigrant detention , according to the most recent data released by the TRAC reports. Immigration detention peaked under the Trump administration at 55,000, but this was still far fewer than the total number of immigrants.
Since the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. far exceeds ICE bed space, the agency uses discretion to determine who is placed in detention .
People who have committed certain crimes are subject to mandatory ICE detention . It is unclear if either of the suspects had a previous criminal record that would have triggered mandatory detention.
A Senate border bill debated earlier this year would have increased funding for ICE. Yet the bill failed to pass when Republicans opposed it in February after Trump spoke out against it.
Do immigrants commit more crimes?
While some immigrants commit crimes, just like any other population, studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or be incarcerated.
The National Bureau of Economic Research tracked incarceration rates over 150 years, and found that immigrants were never incarcerated at a rate higher than U.S.-born citizens.
“The threat is that these people are trying to implement policies based on single cases,” said Javier Ramos, an assistant professor in the department of criminal justice and criminology at Sam Houston State University.
“But what they are also doing is ignoring the vast amount of research done that suggests that immigration has no effect on crime or it reduces crime.”
Both suspects are now being held in Harris County jail with ICE holds. Bail for each was set at $10 million.
On Aug. 13, a lawyer for Pena requested a gag order for Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg and other law enforcement to stop commenting publicly on the case to ensure a fair trial. The State of Texas called the order unconstitutional in its Aug. 20 response.
Since the murder, Jocelyn’s mother has supported harsher immigration policies that she believes could have prevented the crime. This includes the Justice for Jocelyn Act introduced by U.S. Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas-22) in July to increase the detention and tracking of immigrants entering the U.S. The law would require all ICE beds be filled and only allow the release of immigrants with GPS monitoring.
The Houston Landing has been unable to contact Jocelyn’s family by phone or at their current address listed.
“We need to stop losing our littles. We need to stop losing children, mothers, sisters,” Alexis Nungaray said on Thursday. “Because now I get to grieve every single day, every milestone that hits gets harder because she’s not there for it.”
Additional reporting by Angelica Perez
Local News
