Families in swing state afraid to let kids play outside after Venezuelan migrant attacks mom, child: lawmaker

A member of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang was arrested in a tiny Wisconsin community for allegedly sexually assaulting a mother and abusing her daughter after he had been arrested and released earlier this year in Minneapolis. 

Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose grandchildren live less than a mile away from the Prairie du Chien home where the mother and daughter were held against their will and repeatedly victimized, told Fox News Digital that it was only a matter of time before tragedy would strike the community amid the White House’s open-border policies and sanctuary city initiatives. 

Alejandro Jose Coronel Zarate, 26, assaulted the woman and child “under particularly brutal circumstances,” and attacked his victims “over the course of a period of time,” Prairie du Chien Police Chief Kyle Teynor said at a September 9 press conference following Coronel Zarate’s arrest. 

Coronel Zarate was charged with sexual assault, battery, strangulation, suffocation, false imprisonment, child abuse and disorderly conduct in Crawford County Court on Wednesday, WXOW reported. He remains in Crawford County Jail on $10,000 cash bond.

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The mother later told police that Coronel Zarate had also assaulted her on September 4, according to a criminal complaint. During that incident, she told police, Coronel Zarate allegedly told her, “I get away with it. I’m a criminal.”

Teynor said that Coronel Zarate had tattoos associating him with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in the country’s prisons and has since grown a foothold in several areas across the United States. 

Members are accused of a series of high-profile crimes across the U.S., including the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley and the shooting of two NYPD officers during an arrest in June.

“I don’t care what your political affiliation is. This is not a Democrat issue. It’s not an independent or Libertarian issue. This is a human-rights issue,” Van Orden said at the Sept. 9 press conference. “American citizens’ human rights are being violated. They’re being kidnapped, raped and murdered by criminal illegal aliens, and it’s just got to stop.”

Van Orden told Fox News Digital that he stands behind his earlier comments despite the pushback he has since received. 

The town of Prairie du Chien, pictured, has about 5,500 residents. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

“They’re calling us racists for putting out the fact that a man with organized crime tattoos was let into the country by the Harris border czar – he happens to be Venezuelan,” Van Orden said.

Van Orden clarified that he was not opposed to legal immigrants, or immigrants who come to the country on temporary agricultural worker visas, noting that Wisconsin’s farming industries rely on migrants. 

“If we don’t have immigrant labor, our dairies, our farms will go out of business. Our dairies will close if we don’t have immigrant labor. I absolutely 100% welcome immigrant labor if they want to come here and work and send remittances back,” he said. “But letting someone into the country with tattoos associated with known immigrant gangs is not OK. We do not welcome criminal illegal immigrants to come here.”

Prairie du Chien police confirmed that Zarate had entered the country in September 2023 at or near the El Paso, Texas point of entry.

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Rep. Derrick Van Orden told Fox News Digital that his hometown community of 5,500 has been shaken by the brutal crime. (Provided by the office of Congressman Derrick Van Orden)

“I’ve been to the border three times. They let a guy in the country with gang tattoos, and you get a medical screening before you come over the border. They give them a medical exam, because they don’t want people coming over with tuberculosis,” Van Orden said incredulously. 

The former Navy SEAL said the attack had shaken his small community, but said it was only a matter of time until migrant crime would strike there.

“Why should a town of 5,500 people . . . be afraid of letting their kids play in their front yard?” Van Orden said. “It wasn’t like this three years ago.”

The gang member’s Prairie du Chien arrest was not his first run-in with police. In November 2023, he was detained for allegedly receiving stolen property but was subsequently released. 

“Zarate got rolled up for property crimes in Minneapolis and Minnesota that are controlled by [Governor] Tim Walz,” Van Orden said. “They let him go because of the sanctuary city policies.”

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These images from a Customs and Border Protection intelligence bulletin show tattoos and identifiers for Tren De Aragua.

A warrant was issued for his arrest in Wisconsin’s Dane County on Dec. 1 for strangulation/suffocation, false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct. In addition to federal policies, Van Orden blamed Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, a Democrat, for the incident earlier this month. 

“Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett bears a tremendous amount of responsibility personally, and that’s just a fact,” Van Orden told Fox News Digital. “What [he] cannot deny is that they issued a warrant for Mr. Zarate for strangulation, false imprisonment, battery and disorderly conduct. That warrant came out of his office – if he spent more time fighting crime as opposed to complaining about a Republican on his Facebook page, he would have been detained, and a mother and daughter wouldn’t have spent several days being sexually assaulted.”

Van Orden and Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany penned a letter to Barrett earlier this month demanding answers regarding the warrant for Coronel Zarate. 

“Given that Dane County was classified as ‘non-cooperative’ with federal immigration authorities as recently as June of this year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Reps. Tiffany and Van Orden wrote to ask for additional information regarding Dane County law enforcement’s interaction with Mr. Coronel Zarate,” read a release from the two Congress members.

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Barrett told Fox News Digital that the Republicans’ accusations were merely “an unsubstantiated and distasteful attempt to gather votes in a battleground state for the upcoming presidential election,” and that the statement about being uncooperative was false. 

“As sheriff, I will not stand for another disrespectful attack on our law enforcement profession by actors looking to politically persuade voters. This inquiry is an insult to the brave men and women of our Sheriff’s Office who courageously put their lives on the line in service to their community,” Barrett wrote in an email. 

“To the authors of this inquiry, please aim your political theatrics in a different direction as you try to recover from the thorough, factual and strategic dismantling of your presidential candidate by VP Kamala Harris,” Barrett said. “To save any follow-up inquiries, we have not taken reports of people eating cats or dogs.”