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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer asking Montana officials to not release an illegal alien from jail who is charged with raping his dead girlfriend’s daughter.
Wualter Jesus Travieso Soto, 29, who authorities say entered the United States illegally in 2023 and was later released, is being held in Flathead County on felony charges of sexual intercourse without consent involving a child under 16, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office started to look into Soto in May 2025 after his former girlfriend’s sister told authorities that he took custody of her sister’s children after she died in a car accident in 2024.
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Soto’s former girlfriend’s sister fought over guardianship of the children after she said she discovered photos and videos of the Venezuelan national allegedly “kissing and holding her eldest niece ‘in a romantic manner,’” the Daily Inter Laken reported.
After the children’s aunt secured guardianship, the girl told investigators Soto had raped her multiple times and, in one alleged incident, choked her, according to DHS.
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Soto was arrested Feb. 1 and remains jailed on $200,000 bail, authorities said.
“This monster repeatedly raped the child of his dead girlfriend,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement Thursday.
“He would not be in this country in the first place if it weren’t for the Biden Administration’s disastrous catch and release policies that allowed him into our country. ICE is asking officials in Montana to turn this perverted criminal over to ICE custody so that we can get him off our streets and out of our country. With cooperation from our local partners, we will ensure this predator NEVER harms another innocent child.”
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DHS said in a post on X that ICE, with cooperation from Montana authorities, “will ensure this predator NEVER harms another innocent child.”
Records reviewed by Fox News Digital also showed he sought legal guardianship of at least one of the children in court following his girlfriend’s death in the car accident in 2024.
He pleaded not guilty before Judge Danni Coffman at his April 9 arraignment. Soto remains in the county jail, held on an immigration detainer and $200,000 bail. His next court date is Aug. 3.
