Guatemalan Man Sentenced to Prison for Smuggling and Sexually Abusing 14-Year-Old Girl He Sponsored

Juan Tiul Xi, a Guatemalan national, was sentenced to federal prison after pleading guilty to smuggling-related crimes involving a 14-year-old girl he arranged to bring into the United States. Xi convinced the girl’s family to send her north with smugglers.

She crossed the border illegally and posed as his sister so the Office of Refugee Resettlement would place her with him as sponsor, bypassing standard background checks.

Prosecutors told the court that Xi demanded the girl work to repay the smugglers. He threatened her with deportation if she refused, forced her to have sex with him, impregnated her, and pressed her to have an abortion. While abusing the girl, Xi applied to sponsor at least four other unaccompanied children.

He was approved for at least one additional placement. The girl was one of roughly 100,000 unaccompanied alien children who entered the United States in 2024. About 500,000 such children arrived during the Biden administration.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement lost track of hundreds of thousands of these children. As of last month, Homeland Security had located 145,000. Jessica Vaughan, policy studies director at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the case showed how easily the system could be exploited.

“This is another sickening case that illustrates the Biden administration’s shamefully negligent policies for handling UACs, and the harm to children that results,” she said. ” The Justice Department last week announced charges against other Guatemalan nationals accused of submitting fraudulent sponsorship applications. Unaccompanied alien children arrivals fell to 658 in March.