Just think: If John McCain had his way, this animal might have received amnesty. Remember: Despite all the slick assurances from shamnesty advocates, their plan’s criminal background checks were a joke.

All of the illegal alien suspect’s victims were young girls between the ages of 12 and 15. He started his raping spree last June–targeting young girls living in single-parent homes after watching the victims and casing their homes before the attacks. Maybe some newspaper editorial board will make him “Arizonan of the Year.” After all, he was earning a living as a heavy equipment operator:

He packed his car, withdrew his cash and planned to slip quietly into Mexico. But the escape was cut short Friday morning as Chandler detectives closed in. Click here for video, slideshow and more coverage

Police then arrested the man on suspicion of sexually assaulting five girls and attacking another in the Chandler Rapist crime spree that spanned 18 months, police announced Saturday.

Santana Batiz-Aceves, 39, a twice-deported illegal immigrant with a history of drug charges, was arrested about 11:49 a.m. Friday at his Chandler home near Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. He was booked into Maricopa County’s Fourth Avenue Jail on suspicion of 25 felonies, including kidnapping, child molestation, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor, aggravated assault, burglary and trespassing.

He is being held without bond.

“From the beginning of this investigation, we have believed that help from our community and good, old-fashioned police work were the most likely avenues to solving this series of crimes,” Chandler police Chief Sherry Kiyler said at a news conference Saturday. “This has turned out to be the case.”

Police said DNA links Batiz-Aceves, a heavy equipment operator, to three of the sexual assaults. Items found in his car and house also link him to the attacks, police said.

Kiyler said the arrest unfolded Friday morning when detectives were working a saturation patrol in the area of the rapes. A Chandler task force detective spotted a white two-door Toyota Tercel matching a car described in a Nov. 8 home intrusion linked to the Chandler Rapist. Police followed the car and stopped it about 7 a.m. Friday near North California Street and Ray Road. During the stop, a detective noticed a jacket in the car matching descriptions provided by two victims.

Batiz-Aceves first told detectives his name was Ricardo Ramirez Lopez and that he lived in Casa Grande and was in Chandler for work and to find a friend, Kiyler said. When police asked to swab his cheek for DNA, he refused. Officers kept a close watch on the man and obtained a court order for his DNA, but when they tried to contact him at his home, they said he was attempting to leave. “When we went back to contact him, he was in the process of loading up his vehicle,” said Chandler police spokesman Sgt. Rick Griner.

Griner said Batiz-Aceves also had a large sum of cash , and detectives concluded he was planning to flee to Mexico.

Just raping the young girls no one else was raping.

Such are the bloody consequences of a Sanctuary Nation:

Valley police departments don’t keep track of the numbers of crimes committed by immigrants, legal or illegal, because they consider immigration to be a federal responsibility. The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency concentrates mostly on human- and drug-smuggling operations without comparing its notes with law enforcement in general.

About 20 percent of the 9,423 inmates in Maricopa County jails on Friday had immigration holds, said Maricopa County sheriff’s Deputy Doug Matteson. About 10 percent of Arizona’s population is made up of Mexican nationals.

ORDER IT NOW

Batiz Aceves’ illegal status undoubtedly will be held up by most people as the consequences of failures in federal immigration policy, sociologists and national immigration experts said. The crimes he’s accused of also will reinforce the stance that the same borders that allow ordinary immigrants to illegally enter the U.S. to find work also allow in immigrants who commit crimes, they said.

“(The U.S. borders) are an open invitation to people who are criminals,” said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a Washington organization that opposes any form of legalization for undocumented immigrants. “Just as people come here to take advantage of other benefits this country has to offer, criminals will come here also.”

The crimes Batiz Aceves is accused of also will add fuel to the debate about whether state and local police should enforce immigration laws: Batiz Aceves’ arrest comes four months after another undocumented immigrant killed Phoenix police Officer Nick Erfle.

Hey, how’s that fence coming along?

Never mind.

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Dan Riehl: If Batiz Aceves had lived, worked, and raped in Arkansas, would he have earned a Huckabee pardon?