A serial rapist, who terrorized an Arizona neighborhood for nearly two years by targeting young girls, is a twice deported illegal immigrant from Mexico who lived and worked freely in the U.S. despite a history of drug charges.

Thanks to an Arizona county sheriff’s department that is specially trained to enforce immigration laws, the rapist was immediately identified as an illegal immigrant upon booking. Many police departments across the nation don’t bother inquiring about a suspect’s immigration status or have official policies forbidding it.

But the sheriff’s department in Arizona’s largest county (Maricopa), not only confirms immigration status, officers initiate the deportation proceedings in conjunction with federal authorities. Unfortunately, this violent illegal alien landed in the custody of other municipalities during his previous arrests and, although he was deported by the federal government, authorities didn’t follow through and he remained in the country to commit these atrocious crimes.

This sort of federal government negligence has led to the victimization of many innocent Americans--including murdered police officers and families killed by drunken drivers--at the hands of illegal immigrants who ignored deportation orders and remained in the U.S. undetected.

In this latest Arizona case, Santana Batiz-Aceves had been deported after drug charges in California in 1999 and again in 2003. He simply ignored the orders and eventually moved to Chandler Arizona, where he worked as a heavy equipment operator and raped at least five girls, ages 12 to 15.

The series of attacks started June 4, 2006 with the sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl. His latest victim was a 14-year-old girl attacked at her home. When police finally arrested him, the illegal alien had a large sum of cash and was planning to flee to his native Mexico. DNA has already confirmed that he is in fact the Chandler rapist.