U.S. arrests South Sudanese refugee over child sex assault allegations
Author: James Atem Kuir | Published: 10 hours ago
The mugshot of Ruben Marier, shared by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on X. Photo credit: ICE/X.
United States immigration authorities have arrested a South Sudanese refugee, Ruben Marier, over child sexual assault and domestic abuse allegations.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrest of Marier in a social media post accompanying his photo.
In a statement posted on X, ICE said Marier, whom it described as a child sex predator, was arrested on July 7.
According to U.S. authorities, Marier is accused of domestic assault, attempted child sexual assault, child negligence, leaving the scene of an accident and driving under the influence.
ICE said Marier “has racked up a laundry list of convictions since his 1999 legal entry into the United States.”
The agency added, “He was put on supervised release to await travel documents during the Obama administration, but under President Donald J. Trump’s leadership, ICE took him into custody July 7 to protect public safety.”
The statement did not say where in the United States Marier was arrested.
ICE also did not indicate when he would be tried or whether he would be deported to South Sudan.
In July last year, the U.S. government deported a South Sudanese national along with seven other migrants from different countries as part of its crackdown on illegal migration.
The deportation followed an earlier case that sparked a diplomatic dispute between Juba and Washington after South Sudan returned a Congolese migrant who had been wrongly deported to Juba.
Although South Sudan later admitted the migrant, the U.S. government revoked all visas issued to South Sudanese nationals.
The U.S. government also imposed full-entry restrictions on South Sudan and five other countries over what it said were high visa overstay rates and a longstanding failure to cooperate in the repatriation of their nationals.