The Texas district attorney charged with prosecuting two illegal immigrants for the murder of a 12-year-old Houston girl blamed a “broken system” that allowed the pair to allegedly commit the killing. 

Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 21, and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26, are charged with capital murder in the death of Jocelyn Nungaray, both of whom crossed illegally into the United States earlier this year.

“They should have never been released when they crossed over into El Paso, but we have a broken system, and Jocelyn’s death resulted. And it’s just hard when you know something could have been prevented like a child’s death,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg told KPRC on Thursday.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT ACCUSED OF KILLING JOCELYN NUNGARAY WORE ICE ANKLE MONITOR 

Both suspects, who are Venezuelan nationals, allegedly lured Nungaray under a bridge and sexually assaulted her for two hours before she was strangled to death and left in a creek. Nungaray’s murder has amplified concerns over the vetting of migrants and the Biden administration’s border policies.

Ogg said the immigration system has been broken for decades, something many Texans have been aware of for quite some time. 

“We’ve seen it for a long time here. What’s different is we’re seeing people from other countries, it’s not just immigrants from Mexico,” she said. 

“We’re seeing immigrants from China, from the islands, from South America, like these individuals — that’s new. And I think it’s increasing the risk factor for regular people here,” added Ogg. “So I’m hoping our government will work together in a bipartisan fashion to keep the public safe by making our borders safer.”

Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said the immigration system is broken as her office works to prosecute two illegal immigrants charged with killing a 12-year-old Houston girl. (Photo by Brett Comer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

Peña Ramos was arrested by Border Patrol agents after entering the country illegally and released from custody, with ICE telling Fox News in a statement Friday that he had “illegally entered the U.S. without inspection, parole or admission by a U.S. immigration officer on an unknown date and at an unknown location.”

Nungaray’s murder has prompted calls for stronger border enforcement and accountability. 

“Our immigration system is broken, and if ever there was a case that reflected that, it’s this one,” Ogg said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ogg’s office. 

JOCELYN NUNGARAY MURDER: ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT ACCUSED OF KILLING HOUSTON GIRL HAS BAIL SET AT $10M

Ogg, a Democrat, was unseated in her bid for a third term in March by former Harris County prosecutor Sean Teare, who won the Democratic primary for the DA’s office by a landslide. Teare will face off against Dan Simmons, the lone Republican candidate in the race, in November.

Meanwhile, crime in the county has become a concern for elected local and state officials. 

“Harris County has become a sanctuary for criminals, and the blame is not just on the Biden administration, but it’s on the DA’s office,” Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain, a Republican who lives in Harris County, told Fox News Digital. 

“Harris County has become a sanctuary for criminals, and the blame is not just on the Biden administration, but it’s on the DA’s office.” 

— Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain

Cain also cited local criminal court judges “who have let the world know that Harris County is a safe place for criminals, illegal or legal or otherwise.” 

Prosecutors make recommendations, but judges are ultimately responsible for who gets released on bond, and the sentences imposed, he noted. 

Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, left, and Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel have been charged in the killing of Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, Texas, on Monday, June 17. (Harris County Jail)

Peña Ramos and Martinez-Rangel are each being held on $10 million bond. Nungaray was laid to rest Thursday. 

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he told the mother of a 12-year-old Houston girl who was allegedly killed by two illegal immigrants that he wants state lawmakers to pass a bill named after the victim that would deny bail to certain murder suspects. 

Patrick, a Republican, said he spoke with Alexis Nungaray, mother of Jocelyn Nungaray, after the girl was laid to rest Thursday. The alleged killers — Johan Jose Martinez Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Peña Ramos, 26 — are each being held on $10 million bonds. 

“Jocelyn’s family was shocked any bail was given in this case,” Patrick wrote on X. “I told Jocelyn’s mom that the Texas Senate will pass bail reform once again and will not accept the House killing this legislation. It will be named after her daughter as ‘Jocelyn’s Law,’ so her daughter’s name will never be forgotten and will ensure capital murderers are not eligible for bail ever again.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SUSPECT ACCUSED OF KILLING JOCELYN NUNGARAY WORE ICE ANKLE MONITOR 

“Jocelyn’s Law” would allow Texans to vote for a constitutional amendment to automatically deny bail for those charged with capital murder.

“Jocelyn’s murder is re-igniting this move to pass this constitutional amendment and we certainly hope it passes,” Rania Mankarious, the CEO of Crime Stoppers of Houston, told Fox News Digital.

The state Legislature is expected to convene on Jan. 14, 2025. 

“On the first day we are able to file bills for the next legislative session, I will file Jocelyn’s Law,” state Sen. Joan Huffman, also a Republican, wrote online. 

Patrick accused state Democrats and Texas state House Speaker Dade Phelan, a fellow Republican, of killing past bipartisan-supported bail reform bills proposed by Huffman. He cited S.J.R. No. 44, a resolution proposed by Huffman that would have made Martinez Rangel and Peña Ramos ineligible for bail. 

HOUSTON’S ‘MATTRESS MACK’ TO PAY FOR FUNERAL FOR JOCELYN NUNGARAY

Nungaray was buried last week, days after she was found strangled to death in a Houston creek. Martinez Rangel and Peña Ramos, both Venezuelan nationals, lured her under a bridge on June 16 and sexually assaulted her before she was killed, Harris County prosecutors said. 

Both men entered the United States illegally through El Paso, Texas weeks earlier. A Harris County judge ordered the pair held on separate $10 million bonds. 

“We don’t know the background of these individuals. Normally, in a criminal proceeding… you have some type of background data for the judge to do a proper risk assessment to determine what level of bail or what to do with this individual,” Mankarious said. 

While the state Senate looks at the bail issue through the lens of public safety, state House lawmakers also care about public safety but also seem to view it through a “hyper-sensitive approach” in an effort to avoid placing an undue burden on a criminal defendant, said Mankarious.

“The notion is that judges would abuse this added tool of denying bail, and we just don’t feel that way,” she said. “There are many, many, many egregious cases, we are seeing it, not just in Harris County but across every major city in this country, where the criminal element is sort of unlike anything we’ve ever seen in years past and we’ve got to address it.”

JOCELYN NUNGARAY MURDER SUSPECT HAS BAIL SET AT $10 MILLION 

Jocelyn Nungaray, 12, was found strangled to death in a Houston creek this week. (Fox Houston courtesy of the Nungaray family)

“Jocelyn’s Law” would also enhance “Lauren’s Law,” named after 13-year-old Lauren Landavazo of Wichita Falls, to make the killing of a child under 15 a death penalty-eligible offense, Patrick said.

Landavazo was shot and killed in 2016 as she was walking home from school. The killer, Kody Lott, is serving a life sentence and is eligible for parole after serving 30 years.

Currently, only the murder of a child under 10 is a death penalty-eligible offense. 

Crime victims’ advocates in Texas have been trying to get tougher bail legislation on the books for years, especially in certain cases involving egregious crimes. In years past, many criminal offenders in Harris County were released on low bond or no bond at all, with some going on to reoffend, sometimes violently, Mankarious said.

“The courts at the time were really leaning in to this notion that everybody deserves bail and it can’t be punitive,” she said. “The last few years have been difficult for all of us working in this system.”