Border Patrol agents arrest two MS-13 gang members and convicted sex offender for crossing into the US in Texas amid 221% spike in arrests of criminal illegal immigrants
Border agents in Texas arrested two MS-13 gang members and a convicted child sex offender trying to sneak into the US amidst a 221 percent spike in arrests of criminal migrants.
The two MS-13 gang members are Honduran and Guatemalan nationals, and the sex offender is a Salvadoran national. All three were arrested in the city of McAllen at the southern tip of Texas in 24-hour period between Wednesday and Thursday.
The CBP didn't release the names of the MS-13 gangsters, but the sex offender was identified as Cristian Flamenco, who was convicted in Los Angeles for sexually assaulting a child under the age of 14 and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Law enforcement also discovered the Guatemalan national had a prior conviction in Miami for making false statements in a passport application and he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
The arrests are a few of the latest cases in a 221 percent increase in arrests of illegal migrants with criminal records over the last year.
So far in fiscal year 2021, there have been 7,830 arrests of illegal migrants with criminal records as opposed to 2,438 in the entire fiscal year 2020, according to the CBP.
In 2019 and 2018, there were 4,269 and 6,698 arrests, respectively.
A group of illegal immigrants consisting of Mexicans and Central Americans are caught by the U.S. Border Patrol, Rio Grande Valley Sector, after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally on June 2, 2021
There's a 221 percent spike in arrests of illegal migrants with criminal records
A Honduran national is helped to his feet by an agent after collapsing from exhaustion after trying to run from U.S. Border Patrol
Criminal migrants are only part of the border crisis faces the Biden Administration.
The number of children under age 18 apprehended at the border was 834 on Thursday, according to Health and Human Services. The 30-day average is just 512.
Just 612 children in HHS custody were released to parents and guardians, meaning the total number of migrant children held by the US increased by more than 200.
More than 14,500 children are currently in HHS custody, and according to Fox there are 2,784 children in Border Patrol custody.
The rising figure is likely partially fueled by the Biden administration pulling back on the Trump-era Title 42 policy which under CDC direction enables Border Patrol to turn asylum-seekers away over COVID concerns.
While the policy was used on all migrants under Donald Trump, Biden's law enforcement authorities are admitting children and families with small children - expelling single adults and all but what Press Secretary Jen Psaki called 'a small, limited number of families.'
The number of children traveling alone who were picked up at the border reached an all-time high of more than 19,000 in July, according to preliminary numbers shared with the Associated Press by David Shahoulian, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at DHS.
It's just a sign of a greater influx - 210,000 migrants crossed into the US along the southern border in July.
Migrants from Central America in Texas's Rio Grande Valley waiting transport to a Border Patrol holding area on March 25, 2021
Pictured is the tented overflow facility in Donna, Texas some 4 miles North of the Mexican border where a large number of unaccompanied migrant minors are being held in overcrowded conditions
It's the highest one-month total in 21 years, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
More than 188,000 migrants were encountered by law enforcement in June - compared to 33,000 in June 2020.