The refuge protects 37,000 acres of coastal wetlands.
ANAHUAC, Texas — The U.S. House has officially passed the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge Act, pushing it one step closer to being signed into law.
The bill formalizes President Donald Trump’s executive order that renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in the Galveston area to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge protects 37,000 acres of coastal wetlands.
The bill now goes to the president’s desk to be signed.
Lawmakers said the name change will ensure that Jocelyn’s legacy is never forgotten.
Who is Jocelyn Nungaray
Jocelyn was 12 years old when she was brutally murdered on June 17, 2024.
The night before, the girl had put her little brother to bed and snuck out of her apartment.
Early in the morning the following day, Houston police said Jocelyn was walking on Kuhkendahl Road when two men, later identified as Franklin Peña and Johan Martinez-Rangel, asked her for directions. The three of them then walked to a 7-Eleven store before the men allegedly lured Jocelyn to a bridge on West Rankin Road. Police said they were there for a couple of hours and they tied the victim up, took her pants off, strangled her and dumped her in the creek.
Jocelyn’s body was found hours later by a woman who had just dropped her husband off for work.
Alexis Nungaray, Jocelyn’s mother, said she woke up that morning and found out her daughter wasn’t in her room. She said she traced the location of Jocelyn’s phone and it brought her to the scene where her body was found.
The next day, police released surveillance video that showed Jocelyn with the men.
Three days after Jocelyn’s body was found, on June 20, Peña and Martinez-Rangel were taken into custody.
ICE later confirmed that Peña and Martinez-Rangel were being held on immigration detainers at the Harris County Jail, and both “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.”