The rape and murder of 13-year-old Oscar Hernandez — allegedly at the hands of an illegal alien — in the sanctuary state of California is the result of “failed border policies,” United States Attorney Bill Essayli said.
“This was an avoidable crime and the result of failed border policies,” Essayli told NBC Los Angeles of Hernandez’s rape and murder. “We cannot and will not tolerate illegal aliens who flout our nation’s immigration laws then prey on children. Federal law enforcement will continue to be very aggressive in locating, apprehending, and prosecuting criminal illegal aliens.”
This week, 41-year-old illegal alien Mario Edgardo Garcia-Aquino of El Salvador was arrested and charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office with raping Hernandez and then murdering him, leaving his body on the side of a road in Ventura County, California.
Hernandez was first reported missing by his family on March 28 after he had taken a train to Lancaster, California, to visit Garcia-Aquino — a youth soccer coach to young boys. Police allege that Garcia-Aquino murdered Hernandez while raping him before dumping his body.
More alleged victims of Garcia-Aquino are now coming forward, upset that law enforcement did not take the illegal alien off the streets for reported child sex crimes before Hernandez’s murder.
In December 2022, for example, Garcia-Aquino was accused of sexually assaulting a 14 or 15-year-old boy, but the case was not presented to prosecutors until a year later. Until Hernandez’s murder, prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to charge Garcia-Aquino.
Then, in February 2024, a boy identified as John said Garcia-Aquino also sexually assaulted him when he was 16 years old, just three years after he met the illegal alien through a local soccer club.
“He allegedly killed this young boy. I thought it could have been me,” John told NBC Los Angeles.
According to John, while at Garcia-Aquino’s home one day, the illegal alien gave him a glass of orange juice that put him to sleep. On another occasion, John said he woke up to Garcia-Aquino pulling his shorts down. John said he punched Garcia-Aquino before falling back asleep.
As he was falling asleep, John said he felt Garcia-Aquino again pulling his shorts down and began panicking.
“I was freaking out. I didn’t know what to do. I saw my shorts on backwards,” John said of the incident.
The teen eventually called his mom and LA County Sheriff’s deputies, who conducted a test to confirm there were drugs in John’s system. And even though John had reported Garcia-Aquino, the case was still under investigation up until last month — just three days before Hernandez’s murder.
“Knowing what happened, it feels like I got ignored. Like if I wasn’t a human being,” John said. “They just left it open. Then they had to get to a teenage boy getting killed.”
Garcia-Aquino, who remains in police custody, could face either the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole. If convicted of sexually assaulting John, he faces six years in prison.
Near Nashville, Tennessee, a similar case has played out.
Illegal alien Camilo Hurtado Campos, a 65-year-old soccer coach, was accused in July 2023 of drugging, then raping, several young boys and filming the assaults on his phone. His alleged victims ranged from 9 to 17 years old.
Campos has since been indicted on several dozen state and federal charges.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
