gaithersblog.net

Uriah A. Kiser writes in InsideNova.com,

Police search for man in rape of 8-year-old

A 25-year-old Honduran national is wanted in connection with the rape of an 8-year-old girl.

Police said Marcos Danilo Reyes Banegas is accused of raping the child in Woodbridge on Monday, said Prince William County police spokeswoman Erika Hernandez.

Police said Reyes Banegas is an acquaintance of girl.

Hernandez said the man has ties to the Woodbridge, Alexandria, and Gaithersburg, Md.

Police have obtained warrants charging Reyes Banegas with rape, forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and indecent liberties with a minor, Hernandez said.

He is about 5 feet 3 inches tall and weighs 154 pounds. He has short black hair and brown eyes.

Hernandez said he is driving a dark gray four-door 2004 Pontiac Grand Am sedan with Maryland registration “2DWK45.”

Hernandez said because of his immigration status Reyes Banegas may try to flee the country.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Reyes Banegas is encouraged to call police at 703-792-6500 or Crime Solvers at 703-670-3700. Callers don’t have to give their names. Tips leading to arrest could earn a cash reward up to $1,000.

According to Maryland court records, a Marcos D. Banegas, who turned 26 a few weeks ago and is around the right height and weight, was arrested in Montgomery County just a year ago this week for disorderly conduct and second degree assault; his address at the time was on Story Drive in Gaithersburg. The State’s Attorney did not pursue the charges.

In Tuesday’s Washington Post, Pamela Constable and Lisa Rein write, To Illegal Immigrants, Md. Feeling Less Friendly:

Public anger against illegal immigrants, already entrenched in parts of Northern Virginia, is seeping into Maryland. With legislators facing unprecedented demands to take action, fears of a crackdown are spreading among illegal immigrants in a state that has been more tolerant of them.

A record 20 bills targeting illegal immigrants have been introduced in the state legislature this session. Although none of the bills is expected to survive, their supporters are far more vocal and organized than in the past, and the movement has gained recent support in Maryland communities that include Mount Rainier, Gaithersburg and Taneytown.

The article never explains the Gaithersburg reference, but I’ll guess that they are lumping the day laborer and anti-solicitation ordinance situation into this even though that issue is not immigration-specific.

“Everywhere you go now, the first thing they ask you for is papers,” Juan Perez, 28, a Central American construction worker, said outside a gas station in Langley Park one recent morning. “We do the work faster and cheaper, but no one wants us now. I haven’t sent any money home to my family since December, and I can barely pay to sleep in my friend’s apartment.”

Just across University Boulevard, a battered sedan with Virginia tags pulled up in front of a convenience store. The driver, a carpenter from Guatemala named Raul Romano, 40, said he and his family had recently fled Prince William County, their home for eight years, after it enacted a law allowing police to question immigrants about their legal status.

And speaking of Prince William County, N.C. Aizenman writes in the Washington Post, Immigration Agency Arrests 34 Workers At Concrete Firm:

Federal immigration authorities converged on a Prince William County construction company just before sunrise yesterday, arresting 34 Latin American nationals for being in the country illegally.