Hispanic accused of raping a Nashville child was in the country illegally

Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall says that the Hispanic rapist, Carlos Dalarca-Pagoada, should never have been in Middle Tennessee to begin with. He says that law enforcement in Texas had him custody and let him go. Metro police say that Carlos Dalarca-Pagoada was living at the Village West apartment complex on Tennessee Avenue. He lured a 9-year-old girl to his apartment there and then had sex with her numerous times. Sheriff Hall says that what Dalarca-Pagoada did would never have happened had authorities in San Antonio, Tesas deported him while he was jailed there. Instead, the 46 year old was released on his own recognizance and never showed up to answer an order of deportation. He ended up in Tennessee at the west Nashville apartment complex. "My feeling is when you have contact with someone who is criminally active and illegal in the country, let's do something about it then. The federal government in my opinion failed us in this case," Hall said. Several years ago, Hall implemented the 287-G program in Davidson County, which allows his deputies to check the immigration status of individuals who are arrested. In 2009, local media discovered more than 1,000 illegal aliens in the Mid-South who had been arrested for misdemeanor crimes and were let go by the federal government. They were supposed to show up for immigration hearings, but that never happened. They likely moved somewhere else in the country. "The tragedy is there was contact with him previously in Texas. They had him and let him go," Hall said. The reason for Dalarca-Pagoada's arrest in Texas is not public record. But if he is found guilty in Tennessee, he is likely to serve a long time in prison here.