Blackburn and Reps Question Mayorkas about Nashville Assault Suspect

Sen. Marsha Blackburn and other members of Tennessee’s Republican delegation are seeking answers about the immigration status of an immigrant accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the restroom of a Nashville ice cream shop.

“Since President Biden took office, there have been nearly 10 million illegal immigrant encounters, with nearly 2 million ‘gotaways’ who have entered the United States undetected,” wrote members of the delegation in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas inquiring about the immigration status of Nelson Yovani Ortiz-Ramirez, who was charged in the attack.

Republican Reps. Tim Burchett, Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Mark Green, Diana Harshbarger, David Kustoff, Andy Ogles, and John Rose of Tennessee also signed the letter.

The letter highlighted that over 350 migrants encountered by border patrol were on the terrorist watchlist, with 75 being apprehended in the current fiscal year. The lawmakers expressed their concerns about how the border crisis affects Tennesseans.

Ortiz-Ramirez, 23, is facing charges of attempted kidnapping, sexual battery, public intoxication, and evading arrest after an incident at the Nashville Sundae Club where he allegedly followed a woman into a bathroom and groped her. He is currently held on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer.

The lawmakers blamed President Biden’s open border policies for incidents involving illegal immigrants, stating that the Nashville incident is part of a pattern of unconscionable acts by those who have entered the country unlawfully.

They referenced previous incidents involving illegal immigrants, including a case last summer in Franklin, Tennessee, and the February killing of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, 22.

In their letter to Mayorkas, the delegation urged the enforcement of immigration laws to prevent such heinous acts from occurring in the future.