Border Patrol nabs 10 sex offenders crossing border in Texas
A family of asylum seekers from Colombia boards the Border Patrol Inmate transport after they turned themselves in to US Border Patrol agents. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
TEXAS - The U.S. Border Patrol says its officers arrested 10 convicted sex offenders who attempted to illegally cross the U.S. border into Texas from Mexico.
"The majority of these criminals were apprehended in our sector’s most remote areas, attempting to avoid detection by crossing far from populated areas, "said Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II. "Our agents’ sign cutting and tracking skills were instrumental in capturing these criminals, preventing them from infiltrating our communities."
Between May 17 and 23, Border Patrol agents arrested Mexican nationals with convictions for a collection of felonies, including forcible sexual abuse, sexual assault of a child under 14, sexual assault of a child, and more. Agents also arrested two Honduran nationals with felony convictions for statutory rape and second-degree sexual assault of a child.
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On May 24, agents also arrested two Mexican nationals, one of whom had prior convictions for lewd and lascivious molestation while the other had a conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child.
Since the beginning of the 2021 Fiscal Year, Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector have arrested 95 convicted sex offenders, a 3,166 percent increase over the same time frame last year.
In the month of April, Border Patrol ran into more than 178,000 border crossers – over 13,000 of them unaccompanied minors.