Maryland high school thrust into immigration debate

BETHESDA, Md. -- A Maryland high school has been thrust into the national immigration debate after a 14-year-old student said she was raped in a bathroom there by two classmates, including one authorities said came to the U.S. illegally from Central America.

Protesters on both sides of the debate converged on a nearby elementary school Thursday during a visit by U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. And the White House has weighed in, saying the president has made a crackdown on illegal immigration a priority "because of tragedies like this."

The Montgomery County school system has been besieged by hundreds of racist and xenophobic calls. In response, schools beefed up police presence in an attempt to reassure the anxious community.

"Now we're starting to receive calls that are threatening, saying they're going to shoot up the illegals in our school," said Derek Turner, a school-system spokesman. He noted the calls marked "a whole new level of vitriol that we haven't seen before."

The latest flashpoint in the immigration debate started out as a sexual-assault case. Last Friday, Henry Sanchez, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, were charged with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree sexual offense.

Police said the girl was walking in a hallway when one of them asked her to have sex and she refused. Montano forced her into a boys' bathroom stall, and they raped her, police said.

Sanchez, who is from Guatemala, came to the U.S. illegally in August and was encountered by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Rio Valley Grande, Texas, federal immigration officials said. He eventually was released to live with his father.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials wouldn't comment on Montano, who is a minor but is charged criminally as an adult. Federal law requires public schools to admit students even if they are in the country illegally.

"As a mother of two daughters and grandmother of four young girls, my heart aches for the young woman and her family at the center of these terrible circumstances," DeVos said in a statement before her visit to the elementary school. "We all have a common responsibility to ensure every student has access to a safe and nurturing learning environment."