Border Patrol agents at the southern border stopped three child sex offenders entering the U.S. illegally in Texas over the weekend, the agency’s top official announced on Monday.
Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens announced that agents in Eagle Pass, Rio Grande City and Cotulla arrested three criminal sex offenders.
He said that all three of the men had prior felony convictions for “Indecency w/ child Sexual contact.”
BORDER PATROL BUSTS ILLEGAL MEXICAN IMMIGRANT CHILD SEX OFFENDER THEY SAY CARRIED GUNS IN SCHOOL
“They will be set up for prosecution and removal from the U.S.,” he said. The men were not named.
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The three are in addition to number of sex offenders who have been nabbed either at the border or in the interior by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Earlier this month, agents in California announced that they had arrested a convicted sex offender who had been known to carry firearms in schools.
So far, there have been over 8,700 arrests of criminal noncitizens this fiscal year, compared to more than 15,000 in fiscal 2023 and more than 12,000 in fiscal 2022. Among them this year were 119 sex offenders.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
There has been continued concern among some law enforcement and lawmakers that the ongoing crisis at the southern border has led to more criminals attempting to enter, including sneaking past Border Patrol agents as “gotaways.”
It comes amid a broader migrant crisis at the border that has engulfed the U.S. for more than four years and has had significant effects.
There were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in FY 2023. So far this fiscal year, there have been more than 1.3 million encounters up until the end of March.
The Biden administration has called on Congress to provide more funding and a comprehensive immigration reform package to fix what it says is a “broken” system, while Republicans have demanded the administration roll back its policies and restore Trump-era policies they believe solved the border crisis.
