Caught at the border.
Released the same day.
She was 12.
Johan Jose Rangel Martinez was caught by Border Patrol on March 14, 2024 and released the same day. Franklin Jose Pena Ramos was caught on May 28, 2024 and also released the same day. Both Venezuelan nationals received a Notice to Appear and walked free into the United States. On June 16, 2024, prosecutors allege the two men lured 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray to a creek in North Houston, sexually assaulted her, tied her up, and drowned her. Texas is seeking the death penalty.
She was twelve years old.
Jocelyn Nungaray was a 12-year-old girl living in North Houston, Texas. She was a child — in middle school, at the beginning of her life. On the night of June 16, 2024, she left home late. She never came back.
Her mother, Alexis Nungaray, would later stand before Congress, stand beside President Trump, and stand in front of cameras across the country — not because she wanted to, but because two men who should never have been in the United States killed her daughter, and the system that let them in has never been held accountable enough to stop it from happening again.
Caught twice. Released twice. Same day, both times.
This is not a case where the system failed to detect the suspects. Border Patrol caught both of them — weeks apart, at the same stretch of border near El Paso. The system saw them, processed them, and released them anyway. That is not a breakdown. That is policy.
- →Caught near El Paso: March 14, 2024
- →Released: same day — Notice to Appear
- →No detention, no bond, no monitoring
- →Days from release to murder: 94
- →Separately accused of raping a woman in Costa Rica before entering the U.S.
- →Caught near El Paso: May 28, 2024
- →Released: same day — Notice to Appear
- →No detention, no bond, no monitoring
- →Days from release to murder: ~19
- →Zero background checks conducted before release
Rangel Martinez also had a prior record in Costa Rica — accused of rape before he ever set foot on U.S. soil. None of that was discovered before his release. Under Biden-era CBP processing, a Notice to Appear functions as an honor system: the migrant is expected to show up to an immigration court hearing, often years away. Most do not appear. Between 2021 and 2024, the Biden DHS released hundreds of thousands of migrants on these terms, with no meaningful vetting, no detention, and no tracking.
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick at Jocelyn Nungaray's funeral — June 27, 2024
94 days from border to murder. Every step documented.
The policy had a name. So do the people who ran it.
The catch-and-release policy that freed both suspects was not an accident or a rogue agent's decision. It was deliberate Biden administration border enforcement doctrine — explicitly defended by DHS leadership as a humane alternative to detention. The House Homeland Security Committee called it out by name in their June 21, 2024 analysis. These are the officials who ran that policy.
The Biden administration's mass catch-and-release policy governed CBP processing from day one of his term. Both suspects were apprehended and freed under that policy. Biden defended the policy repeatedly as necessary given immigration court backlogs — backlogs his administration worsened by releasing hundreds of thousands of migrants without consequences.
Mayorkas personally directed CBP enforcement priorities throughout 2021–2024. The catch-and-release framework that processed both Rangel Martinez and Pena Ramos existed under his direct authority. He was later impeached by the House of Representatives — the first cabinet secretary impeached in nearly 150 years.
The acting commissioner overseeing CBP at the time both suspects were apprehended and released. CBP field officers followed agency policy — processing both men with Notices to Appear and releasing them the same day, consistent with Biden-era enforcement guidelines.
"Because of the Biden-Harris administration open border policies, catch and release, they were released into the United States. It was not even a full three weeks later that they would take my daughter Jocelyn Nungaray's life."
Alexis Nungaray, mother of Jocelyn Nungaray — House Judiciary Committee testimony, September 10, 2024
He was accused of rape before he crossed.
Johan Jose Rangel Martinez is separately accused of raping a woman in Costa Rica before he ever entered the United States. That prior allegation existed when Border Patrol caught him near El Paso on March 14, 2024. It was not discovered — because it was never looked for. Under the Biden DHS catch-and-release model, the processing that preceded his same-day release did not include meaningful international background checks.
This is what zero background checks looks like in practice: a man previously accused of rape in another country is handed a piece of paper and told to show up to court in a few years. He does not show up. Instead, prosecutors allege, he finds a 12-year-old girl and murders her.
Her mother went to Congress. And did not stop.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg authored an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle calling for systemic change to ICE detention policy following Jocelyn's murder. Cruz introduced the Justice for Jocelyn Act, which would require ICE to fill every available detention bed before releasing any migrant who entered the country illegally. It would further mandate that anyone released be fitted with ankle monitors under 24-hour surveillance.
- →ICE must fill every available detention bed before releasing any illegal border crosser
- →Anyone released must wear an ankle monitor and be subject to 24-hour GPS monitoring
- →Strict curfew requirements enforced as a condition of release
- →Expanded use of expedited removal for migrants who entered illegally
- →Named after Jocelyn Nungaray — the 12-year-old murdered by two men the Biden administration freed at the border
On September 10, 2024, Alexis Nungaray testified before the House Judiciary Committee alongside other families of migrants crime victims. She described the Alternatives to Detention program that was supposed to monitor both suspects after their release. She described what it meant to watch Congress debate the policies that killed her daughter while Democratic members walked out of the hearing. She did not stop speaking.
Sen. Ted Cruz at the RNC, speaking for Jocelyn Nungaray — July 2024
Sen. Ted Cruz calls for passage of the Justice for Jocelyn Act — March 2025
"My daughter was murdered because of Biden-Harris open border policies. I am here so that no other mother has to sit where I am sitting."
Alexis Nungaray — Congressional testimony, September 2024 · Source: Houston Public Media
Texas wants the death penalty. A nation wants answers.
The Harris County District Attorney's office is pursuing capital punishment for both Johan Jose Rangel Martinez and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos. Both men remain in custody pending trial as of this writing. Bail was set at $10 million each — a recognition that neither man had any legal reason to remain in the United States and every incentive to flee.
President Trump named a Galveston-area wildlife refuge after Jocelyn Nungaray in 2025 — a formal federal acknowledgment that her name belongs to American memory. Her mother has appeared alongside Trump and testified repeatedly before Congress. None of it brings Jocelyn back. All of it is an indictment of what the Biden DHS chose to do with the border.