CAMDEN, NJ—A Honduran national appeared in federal court today to face charges that he illegally re-entered the United States after being deported and that he kidnapped a woman in Kansas City, Missouri, and raped her while they traveled to New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

José Amaya-Vasquez, 30, is charged by criminal complaint with one count of kidnaping and one count of illegal re-entry into the United States by an alien after removal. He appeared this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court and was detained.

According to the complaint:

On June 7, 2014, Amaya-Vasquez was arrested in Kansas City and charged with domestic assault against the victim referenced in the complaint. After he was removed from the United States by immigration authorities on July 7, 2014, Amaya-Vasquez was caught trying to illegally enter the United States on Sept. 9, 2014. He was incarcerated for 30 days and removed from the United States on Oct. 22, 2014. On Feb. 14, 2005, he was again arrested trying to enter the country and failed to make his required July 13, 2005 immigration court appearance.

On May 23, 2015, Amaya-Vasquez met the victim in the parking lot of the Burlington Coat factory in Independence, Missouri. Amaya-Vasquez allegedly entered the victim’s vehicle, threatened her with a knife and instructed her to follow him. The victim’s two-year old child was in the vehicle. The victim followed Amaya-Vasquez to an abandoned house in Kansas City, where he allegedly raped her.

From May 24, 2015 through May 25, 2015, Amaya-Vasquez took the victim and the child towards New York. He stopped at motels in Englewood, Ohio, and Bellmawr, New Jersey, and continued to rape the victim.

On May 26, 2015, officers from the Bellmawr Police Department, acting on information from the Kansas City Police Department, located the victim in the Bellmawr motel. Amaya-Vasquez escaped from the motel as the officers approached. Later that morning, officers from Bellmawr and Mt. Ephraim, New Jersey, arrested Amaya-Vasquez a short distance from the motel. Amaya-Vasquez has been in custody in Camden County since his arrest.

The kidnapping charge carries a maximum potential penalty of life in prison. The illegal re-entry into the United States charge carries a maximum potential penalty of two years in prison.

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. in Philadelphia, special agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), under Newark Field Office Director John Tsoukaris, and investigators with the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Mary Eva Colalillo, with the investigation leading to the charges. He also thanked the Kansas City Police Department and the Bellmawr Police Department for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Richardson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.