Thursday, March 28, 2024

Border Patrol Arrests More Criminal Migrants, Sees Sharp Increase in Apprehensions.

US Border Patrol (BP) recently arrested gang members, sex offenders, and over a hundred individuals involved in human smuggling, also seeing sharp increases in the number of arrests and apprehensions necessary to protect the US border under the Biden administration.

Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector (RGV) arrested four criminal migrants this week. On June 21, one of a group of 39 apprehended migrants was a 23-year-old El Salvadoran national and active member of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) street gang. The gang member “has a lengthy criminal record involving multiple arrests for aggravated assaults, criminal trespass, and domestic violence,” and had been removed from the US in 2018.

On June 22, during apprehensions of two separate groups of migrants, RGV Border Patrol arrested two sex offenders. 38-year-old Mexican national Sergio Fuentes-Hernandez was convicted of the third degree felony of Assault with Intent to Commit Criminal Sex Conduct in 2009, sentenced to 10 years of confinement, and deported in 2013 back to Mexico. Jaime Barajas-Barron was sentenced in 1991 to 15 years confinement for a “sex offense against a child” and was deported both in 2006 and earlier this month. Also on June 22, RGV BP agents arrested a 22-year-old MS-13 gang member and El Salvadoran national with a criminal history in the US and multiple deportations.

Between June 15-21, Border Patrol agents from Laredo, Texas shut down six “stash houses” used for human smuggling and arrested almost 150 “undocumented individuals.” The number of illegal migrants arrested in each stash house ranged from three to 53.

The Air and Marine Operations (AMO) Laredo Air Branch has reported that migrant apprehension numbers between October 1, 2020 and June 17, 2021 have a 143 percent increase over the number of apprehensions for the entire Fiscal Year 2020. AMO Laredo Air Branch helped apprehend 12,400 individuals during the period of October 1, 2020 to June 17, 2021.

Border Patrol agents from Del Rio Sector’s Uvalde Station have seen an increase of 911 percent in “subjects found hiding on trains, compared to the same time last year.” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II said that migrants often hide in storage areas which are dangerous and even deadly in terms of temperature. According to Customs and Border Protection:

“During Fiscal Year 2021 – Oct. 1, 2020 to date – Del Rio Sector agents have apprehended 3,390 undocumented migrants while conducting train check operations in Uvalde, compared to 372 during the same time last fiscal year.”

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