Americans continue to be shocked and disgusted by the vicious rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Maryland high school, perpetrated by older teenagers – at least one of whom had no legal right to be in the United States. Now Republican lawmakers are looking for answers, and the Trump administration is saying the case illustrates the dangers of playing nice with illegal immigration.

Henry Sanchez-Milian, 18, and Jose Montano, 17, are the suspects in the crime; both of them are from Central America. Montano’s immigration status has not been cleared up, but it is known that Sanchez is in the country illegally. He was attending high school (as a freshman, on account of his limited English) while awaiting his deportation hearing.

In a letter to the director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Sen. Ron Johnson of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, demanded to know why Sanchez was even in a position to rape one of his classmates.

“On March 16, 2017, a tragic event occurred in Montgomery County, Maryland. According to news reports, a 14-year old student was dragged into a high school restroom and raped by two teenage boys,” Johnson wrote. “At a hearing March 22, Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, testified if Border Patrol had properly done its job, neither Sanchez-Milian or Montano would have been present in this country to commit this heinous act.”

At the testimony in question, Judd said:

“Had we done our job, that 14-year-old girl would have never been raped. Period. Had we held those individuals in custody, or that one individual in custody pending a determination that this person should be allowed to remain in this country, that rape would not have happened. We failed the citizens of this great nation by not securing the border.”

Johnson believes the teenagers may have been granted leniency due to Obama’s Unaccompanied Minor Program, which allowed young immigrants to live with families or sponsors in the U.S. until their cases could be decided.

The spotlight is now once again on illegal immigration, which was Trump’s biggest selling point on his way to the Republican nomination. And it’s a reminder of just how important it is for him to make some serious changes to our current policies and how important it is to enforce the ones that work. Thankfully, every indication we have points to him doing just that.