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The man charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio is a Guatemalan illegal immigrant, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) source told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
The Columbus Dispatch first reported that Gerson Fuentes was arrested after police said he confessed to raping a child on multiple occasions. He has been charged with rape, and the outlet reported that he was possibly in the country illegally.
The source told Fox that ICE has placed a detainer on Fuentes, which is a request he eventually be handed over to the agency for removal proceedings.
Gerson Fuentes, 27, has been charged with rape of a minor under 13 in Ohio.
(Franklin County Sheriff’s Office)
The story of the alleged rape was initially published in the Indianapolis Star in the context of the victim reportedly having to cross state lines to Indiana to get an abortion due to the state’s laws.
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The story was eventually echoed by President Biden in a speech last week in announcing measures to protect abortion access in the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
The case had drawn national scrutiny amid debate over abortion in the wake of the recent Supreme Court case.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
“On Monday three days after the Supreme Court issued its groundbreaking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist, took a call from a colleague, a child abuse doctor in Ohio,” the Indy Star piece began. “Hours after the Supreme Court action, the Buckeye state had outlawed any abortion after six weeks. Now this doctor had a 10-year-old patient in the office who was six weeks and three days pregnant.”
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But the story was questioned by some critics, given its single source and scant detail. It drew scrutiny as well from the state attorney general, who noted that exceptions to Ohio law would have allowed the girl to obtain an abortion in the state.
Fox News previously reported on Tuesday that an arrest warrant was expected in the case, and a HIPAA violation had been filed against the doctor who leaked the story.
Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie and Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
