Menendez says he was unaware arrested intern was sex offender, illegal immigrant By Matt Friedman/Statehouse Bureau December 12, 2012 at 5:41 PM TRENTON ? U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez said he did not know an intern at his office was a sex offender and illegal immigrant. ?There?s no way we could know about his status,? said Menendez in an interview on MSNBC this afternoon. ?There?s no way we could know about any allegation as a juvenile of what his background would be in terms of criminality.? According to the Associated Press, federal authorities arrested Luis Abrahan Sanchez Zavaleta, 18, who came to the United States from Peru and allegedly overstayed on an expired visa. Citing a federal law enforcement source, the AP said officials at the Department of Homeland Security told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to hold off on the arrest until after Menendez?s November election. Sanchez committed the sex offense in 2010 but, because he was prosecuted as a minor, court records and the exact charges are not publicly available, the AP said. In the interview on MSNBC shortly after the new broke, Menendez said his staff found out about the arrest Monday and ?let the young man go? from the intern program. Menenedez said he personally didn?t know about the arrest until today. ?What we know is we have a non-paying college intern program. This young man applied to that process, got recommended by the school,? said Menendez, who had been previously booked by the cable news channel to discuss immigration reform. ?We ask status of all of those college interns... And we certainly wouldn?t have known through any background checks since he is a minor, about any sex offender status.? A spokesman for the Department Of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Menendez easily won his second full term in November against state Sen. Joseph Kyrillos (R-Monmouth). Kyrillos said he didn?t think the arrest would have swayed the election results if it had happened beforehand, but he said that if true it?s ?outrageously inappropriate? if Department of Homeland Security waited to arrest Sanchez until after the election. ?It wasn?t that they?re dealing with an illegal immigrant exclusively. They?re dealing with somebody who law enforcement has previously designated a sex offender,? he said. http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/ ... aware_a.html#incart_river