By Corinne Murdock |
U.S. Border Patrol (BP) agents nabbed 21 convicted sex offenders attempting to enter the country illegally in just over a month; all but one were pedophiles.
Agents operating in the Del Rio Sector caught the offenders. 20 had committed sex offenses against children, with the sole other apprehended illegal immigrant convicted of a sexual assault involving sodomy. The sex offenses against children included rape, enticement, exposure, sexual contact, assault, and lewd and lascivious battery.
Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) shared the BP update, reflecting that the apprehensions proved the severity of the ongoing border crisis.
“Great job by U.S. Border Patrol, but this just shows how serious our border crisis is!” said Lesko. “We MUST secure the border NOW.”
These latest apprehensions are part of the trend of serious offenders capitalizing on the effectively open border policy of the Biden administration.
In June, Del Rio Sector agents marked the apprehension of their 86th sex offender for the 2023 fiscal year. It is currently the 2024 fiscal year; BP runs its fiscal year from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.
Overall, there have been over 284 illegal immigrants with criminal sexual offense convictions apprehended at the border this past fiscal year. That total marked a slight decline from the past two years: the 2021 fiscal year endured the worst totals at 488 illegal immigrants with criminal sexual offense convictions apprehended, followed by the 2022 fiscal year at 365. The 2018 and 2019 fiscal years were markedly low, with 80 and 58 apprehensions, respectively.
In all, the last fiscal year there were over 2.4 million illegal immigrant encounters along the southern border.
Not counting last month, the first month in the 2024 fiscal year, President Joe Biden’s administration has seen over 6.37 million illegal immigrant encounters along the southern border. October set another record, with nearly 241,000 illegal immigrant encounters compared to the 2023 and 2022 fiscal years, which endured over 231,500 and 164,800 encounters respectively.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
