U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement filed an arrest detainer on Monday asking New Jersey to hold Hernando Garcia-Morales, who is accused of throwing a “baseball-sized rock” into a school bus, hitting an 8-year-old Jewish girl and fracturing her skull on the New Jersey Turnpike in Teaneck.
The federal agency, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, referred to Garcia-Morales as a “criminal illegal alien from Mexico.”
According to Yeshivat Noam, a Modern Orthodox day school, the third grader was recovering after undergoing surgery.
New Jersey Turnpike State Police arrested Garcia-Morales on Jan. 9 for aggravated assault, resisting arrest and possessing a weapon. The Bogota Police Department in New Jersey also charged him with aggravated assault, criminal trespassing-defiant, criminal trespassing peering and criminal mischief-damage property, per the Homeland Security Department.
“Garcia-Morales has had an extensive criminal history while living in sanctuary state New Jersey. In 2023, he was arrested for burglary. In 2006, he was arrested for possession of a weapon and theft,” the department said. “This illegal alien entered the country at an unknown date and time.”
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant U.S. secretary of homeland security for public affairs, stated that “violently targeting a school bus full of children is extremely wicked and heinous.”
“Hernando Garcia-Morales should have never been in this country, let alone released after multiple arrests into New Jersey communities,” she said. “ICE has lodged an arrest detainer against this monster, and we hope New Jersey’s sanctuary politicians will help us keep him off American streets for good.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, criminal illegal aliens have no place in the U.S.,” she added.
