EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Border Patrol agents from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley arrested three undocumented men either accused or convicted of sex-related crimes involving children, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release.
On Sunday afternoon, agents from the McAllen Station arrested a Mexican man near Hidalgo, Texas. A check of the man’s record revealed that he had been convicted of sexual assault of a child in Benton County, Texas. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
That morning, agents from the Rio Grande City station patrolling near Roma, Texas, arrested a Mexican man who had been convicted of online solicitation of a minor in Montgomery, Texas. Agents said Leonardo Daniel Vargas-Salinas was sentenced to two years in prison.
On Saturday morning, agents said a Mexican man tried to circumvent the Falfurrias checkpoint by traveling through the vast ranchlands of Brooks County. While processing the man, agents learned that was wanted on a charge of statutory rape of a child in Morgantown, N.C. Brooks County Sheriff’s deputies took custody of the man.
The arrests come after U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered 23 convicted sex offenders in May.
“Transnational criminal networks don’t do background checks on the people they help smuggle into the country,” Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott said in a statement. “Our vigilance makes this country safer, one encounter at a time.”
All individuals encountered by the U.S. Border Patrol undergo criminal history checks utilizing multiple databases including the use of biometrics to ensure those with a
