Nantucket parents fear for their children as migrant crime increases: “As a father, this really scares me”

NANTUCKET, Mass. – Local parents fear for their children’s safety after federal officials arrested five illegal immigrants, including a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, on this picturesque island for alleged crimes including sexual assaults on children.

Erik Evans, who has lived on the Massachusetts island off Cape Cod for 31 years and has an 8-year-old daughter, told Fox News Digital that the arrests earlier this month by Immigration and Customs Enforcement underscore how the city has struggled in recent times has changed over the years.

The growing immigrant population, which largely takes care of the population in the summer, persists even when the weather turns cold, and a handful of them have reportedly committed crimes that rarely occur here.

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“How are the last five people arrested who are rapists? [violent criminals] Work here, walk through our grocery store and pass us at the gas station? “It’s just … it’s not what Nantucket used to be,” Evans said.

“I’m very glad that ICE was here and was able to do its job and get rid of at least some of the bad people on the island. There are obviously many, many more. And as a community it scares me.” . As a father, this really scares me and I wish more was done.

During the summer, Nantucket is home to tens of thousands of visitors who own or rent vacation homes.

Evans, a construction worker, said the island’s wealthy seasonal residents, who want “everything done yesterday,” have attracted an influx of illegal immigrants.

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 of about 14,000 residents.

“You can cut wood or hammer nails,” Evans said. “And you know, I wonder who hires these people. Do they run background checks on them?”

On September 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 years old.

ERO Boston announced Thursday the Sept. 12 arrest of 30-year-old Angel Gabriel Deras-Mejia, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant and documented member of MS-13. (ICE ERO-Boston)

Todd Lyons, ERO Boston field office director, said in a news release at the time of his arrest that Aldana-Arevalo “poses a significant danger to the children of our Massachusetts communities.” His alleged victim was only 12 years old, Nantucket Current reported.

That day, Aldana-Arevalo and Elmer Sola, another Salvadoran migrant charged with 11 counts of sex crimes against a child that Lyons said took place in Nantucket, were quietly ferried in handcuffs to the mainland.

According to the Nantucket Current, Sola was charged, arraigned and released on August 14 with an ankle monitor on the condition that he stay away from the victim and his family. But he returned to court nine days later after allegedly violating the pretrial conditions of his release.

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On September 11, agents returned to the famous vacation spot to arrest illegal Brazilian immigrant Geon do Amaral Belafronte and Guatemalan illegal immigrant Felix Alberto Perez-Gomez. Both committed sex crimes against Nantucket residents, Lyons said.

Belafronte entered the United States legally in 2018 but left the United States of his own volition after the alleged assault occurred in 2021. He re-entered the country illegally and was arrested on a warrant in March. After his arraignment, Nantucket District Court released him on $500 bail or a $5,000 surety bond, according to court records and the Boston ERO.

Enforcement and Removal Operations Boston has arrested an illegally present 28-year-old Salvadoran citizen, Bryan Daniel Aldana-Arevalo, and charged him with numerous sex crimes against a child on Nantucket Island. (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)

According to a police report reviewed by Nantucket Current, Belafronte pinned his alleged victim to the ground with his hands above his head and said “I’m going to rape you” while licking her lips with his tongue while she kept her mouth closed.

Suspected MS-13 gang member Angel Gabriel Deras-Mejia of El Salvador was taken into custody by the agency on the island on September 12. Lyon said Deras-Mejia was “representative.”[ed] a significant threat to the residents of Nantucket.”

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Deras-Mejia was arrested at Discovery Playground on Old South Road in July. Nantucket police wrote that he was “drunk and cursing, throwing his arms out, screaming loudly, distracting any civilians who were at the scene” and leaving crying children at the scene. According to Nantucket Current, he and the mother of his child allegedly argued over who would take her child home. He was arrested again in August for assault and battery on a household member.

Another Nantucket father, who did not want to be named, noted that one of the gang members was arrested right next to his daughter’s preschool.

“It’s a bit scary knowing people like that live here,” the father said outside The Muse, a pub frequented by locals. “Some people’s reaction is that ‘[Immigrants here] are afraid [after the ICE arrests].’ Well, I have children and I find it scary that these people live here.

A 39-year-old woman who has lived in Nantucket since she was four years old and has a daughter enrolled at Nantucket Intermediate School told Fox News Digital the details of the illegal immigrants’ crimes — and her neighbors’ and friends’ reactions to ICE -Raid – were disturbing.

“It’s on Facebook [local newspaper] it covers a lot. They will publish it and no one will say anything,” she said. “I feel like people are afraid to say, ‘Good for’ [ICE]. I’m glad this is happening.’ You know, they’re crickets.”

“Of course I do,” Evans said when asked if he had any concerns about his child’s safety in the community following the arrests.

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“My daughter goes to school and after school she goes to the Boys and Girls Club. But I mean, they go there. … And with so many kids, there’s never enough chaperones or people to really keep an eye on all those kids,” he said.

Evans told Fox News Digital that there are “Ring doorbell cameras everywhere” on Nantucket these days and that a number of “major alarm system companies” have popped up on the island in recent years.

“Our local newspaper is published every Thursday. And the crime report … has become dramatically larger in recent years than it used to be,” he said. “There are always at least 15 to 20 different people in the court report, and these episodes are due to many drunk driving cases, OUI arrests, [and] lots of house break-ins. Domestic violence drugs.

“Of course, we are no longer sure where there is a safe place.”

Before this month, immigration agents had not come to the island to make arrests since 2017, Boston ERO told Fox News Digital.

“I never predicted what we have now,” Evans said. “And it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.”