Florida Teen Beaten After Chasing Home Intruder: Deputies

A teenage girl in Florida was hospitalized after being beaten by a home invasion suspect she was attempting to photograph, a man later determined by deputies to have re-entered the United States illegally last year.

The incident was first reported on Friday in a Facebook post from the Martin County Sheriff's Department, which confirmed that the break-in took place that afternoon in Hobe Sound, a coastal town of roughly 13,000 situated around 35 miles north of Palm Beach. A suspect, later confirmed to be 42-year-old Antonio Amaya-Guevara, broke into the home and found it occupied only by a 17-year-old girl.

The suspect then attempted to flee from the scene, prompting the girl to follow in an attempt to take a picture of him. At this, Amaya-Guevara turned around and began to attack the teen.

"Unfortunately, Amaya-Guevara turned around and began beating the teen about the head and neck," the sheriff's office's post explained. "She was transported to the hospital. A witness who saw the suspect attack the teen called 911. Detectives were able to identify the suspect and tracked him down in Palm Beach County tonight."

According to the post, the search for and arrest of Amaya-Guevara shortly after the attempted break-in was conducted with the assistance of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The suspect was identified as a Honduran native who had "re-entered" the U.S. illegally last year, according to the sheriff's office.

Amaya-Guevara was charged with occupied burglary, battery, robbery by sudden snatching, and child abuse. He is being held on an $800,000 bond and will be given an immigration detainer, meaning that he will be taken into DHS custody at any point that he is released from law enforcement custody.

The teen girl, who remains unidentified, was treated for her injuries at a local hospital and has since been released. The details of her injuries have not been disclosed.

In a statement to Newsweek on Monday afternoon, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder confirmed that Amaya-Guevara had been twice deported prior to the Friday incident and was actively being searched for by DHS.

"Although I am concerned anytime one of my citizens is a victim of a violent crime, this particular case is alarming because the offender should not have been in my county in the first place," Snyder wrote. "He is here illegally from Honduras, and to our knowledge has been deported at least twice. Homeland Security was actively looking for him when he committed this burglary and robbery. Our 17-year old female victim was home alone when the offender kicked in the door and entered the house. Fortunately, she escaped serious injury after being punched repeatedly in the face and head. It is time that our federal government makes a good faith effort to secure our borders and protect our people."

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Homeland via email for comment.

Incidents like the one in Hobe Sound involving migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally have long been highlighted by conservative lawmakers as a reason to implement stricter policies on crossings at the southern border with Mexico.

Statistics on the matter, however, show that native-born U.S. citizens are arrested and imprisoned for a variety of crimes at notably higher rates than undocumented immigrants.

The Department of Justice's (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs found in 2020 that, "relative to undocumented immigrants, U.S.-born citizens are over 2 times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes, 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes, and over 4 times more likely to be arrested for property crimes."

Update 1/29/2024, 4:18 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with a statement from the Martin County Sheriff's Office.