ICE agent raped migrant woman 'four times a week for seven years' by threatening her with deportation, suit alleges
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent threatened a Honduran woman living in Connecticut with deportation if she did not have sex with him and then raped her nearly four times a week for seven years, according to a federal lawsuit. The suit also alleges that the former ICE agent, identified as Wilfredo Rodriguez, impregnated her three times during the ordeal.
The woman reportedly filed the lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security, ICE, and Rodriguez on Saturday. She is seeking $10 million in damages.
The woman's attorney, George Kramer, in an email, said: "My only comment is that my client had a choice, cooperate with ICE or be deported with her family."
"She remains in a very fragile psychological state. She is not only seeking compensation for the physical and emotional damage she suffered, but to change the way those who are cooperating with ICE are treated by those in a position of power and who often wield total control over the ability to remain in the United States," he added. The woman in the case has been identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed that Rodriguez does not work with the agency anymore. While a spokesperson for the US attorney's office in Connecticut, Tom Carson, said he could not comment on whether there will be a criminal investigation in the case, according to the Associated Press.
The suit states that the woman first met Rodriguez in 2006 after her brother was arrested for entering the United States illegally. The ICE agent eventually found out she was also living in the country illegally and told her that she had to become an informant and help the agency to locate criminals if she did not want to be deported.
According to the lawsuit, the woman did what she was asked to and pointed the agency to three men living in the US illegally who had stabbed her husband. However, the suit alleges, it was not enough for Rodriguez. The former agent, while trying to locate someone in 2007, told the woman to go to a motel and then attempted to have sex with her.
The agent covered her mouth, threw her on the bed, put his gun next to her and said if she opened her mouth, he would use the gun. He then raped her, the suit alleges. The woman in the suit added that he used to call himself 'The Wolf' and told her he was the reason she and her family were not deported.
The woman claims she was impregnated by Rodriguez in 2007, 2009, and 2013. She had an abortion each time and Rodriguez paid for one of them. The lawsuit alleged that her sexual abuse continued for years where he made her perform oral sex and participate in "abhorrent sexual behavior."
The agent would consistently remind her that he was 'The Wolf' and often threatened to kill her and her family. The suit also claims the woman attempted suicide at least four times after being unable to cope with the ordeal.