Criminal Migrants, Sex Offenders Arrested After Illegally Crossing Border from Mexico

Border Patrol agents along the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico continue to find deported sex offenders and other criminal migrants hiding in large groups. Over the weekend, agents in the Yuma and Rio Grande Valley sector made multiple such arrests.

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested more than 1,500 migrants over the weekend, according to information obtained from sector officials. Hiding in those groups of migrants was a registered sex offender.

During migrant processing and biometric screening that all migrants go through after apprehension, Yuma Sector agents identified one of a group of seven migrants as 45-year-old Jorge Ramirez-Rivera, a Salvadoran national. The biometric background search revealed that a court in El Monte, California, convicted the foreign national in 2012 for sexual molestation of a child. The California court sentenced the Salvadoran migrant to a mere 142 days in jail for molesting the child.

Following the completion of his sentence, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations officers deported him to El Salvador. He now faces federal felony charges for illegal re-entry after removal as a child sex offender, officials stated. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in federal prison.

Since October 1, 2020, Yuma Sector agents identified 429 sex offenders after they illegally re-entered the United States.

In South Texas, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents arrested three more deported sex offenders and a member of a dangerous gang, officials reported.

On Friday, McAllen Station Border Patrol agents patrolling near Havana, Texas, found a 38-year-old man traveling with a group of mostly migrant families. During a records check and biometric screening, the agents identified the Guatemalan man as a child sex offender. An unidentified court convicted the man for sexual abuse of a minor — a third-degree felony, officials stated. The court sentenced the man to two years of probation.

Later that day, McAllen Station agents apprehended another group consisting of 18 single adult migrants. Included in that group was a Honduran national convicted in a Minnesota court for criminal sexual conduct with a child between the ages of 13 and 15 years, officials stated. The Minnesota court sentenced the Honduran man to a ten-year probation term and 114 days in jail for the 4th-degree felony.

One day later, Fort Brown Station agents arrested a group of seven migrants who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico. During processing, the agents identified one of the men, a 33-year-old Nicaraguan national, as a deported sex offender.

A Ventura, California, court convicted the man in 2008 for sex with a minor more than three years younger. The court sentenced the man to 10 days in jail and placed him on probation for an additional 36 months.

Falfurrias Station agents searching the brush surrounding the Border Patrol checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281 on Monday encountered a group of six migrants attempting to avoid apprehension, officials reported. During a records check, the agents identified one of the men, a Salvadoran national, as a member of the violent Latin Kings gang. The Salvadoran man had also been the subject of multiple deportations.

All previously deported criminal aliens are subject to felony prosecution for illegal reentry. If convicted, each could face up to 20 years in federal prison before being deported again.