Border Patrol agents in Texas arrested three criminal illegal aliens on Oct. 20, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). All three are gang members.
One man, from El Salvador, is an MS-13 gang member with pending charges for homicide, fraud, and trespassing in New York. He was encountered about 60 miles north of the U.S.–Mexico border.
Another Salvadoran man was found in the brush, ostensibly trying to skirt the Border Patrol highway checkpoint in Falfurrias, about 80 miles north of the border. He’s an MS-13 gang member with a criminal arrest for homicide in El Salvador.
Closer to the border, on the same day, an 18th Street gang member from El Salvador was arrested after being discovered among a group of 61 illegal aliens near Hidalgo. The man had been removed from the United States last month.
Border Patrol personnel have arrested 325 illegal alien gang members in fiscal year 2021 through August, according to CBP statistics. Border Patrol is the law enforcement arm of CBP within the Department of Homeland Security.
Border agents have encountered more than 12,000 illegal alien criminals and those with outstanding warrants in the same time period, according to CBP. A further 4,474 illegal alien criminals were encountered at U.S. ports of entry.
CBP commissioner nominee and former Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris Magnus refused to say the border was in a crisis during a nomination hearing in front of the Senate on Oct. 19, despite preliminary numbers showing 1.7 million apprehensions at the border—breaking all previous records.
In response to a question about the record volume of drugs entering the United States, Magnus said: “Of course, if there was a ready-to-go plan to address all the problems that you’ve just described, my guess is that not only CBP, but you all as a body would have seen to it that it was implemented.”
He said a key part of his strategy as commissioner would be to build relationships and collaborate with policymakers.
Former CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan said at a congressional Republican roundtable on border security on Oct. 20 that Border Patrol had detected but not caught at least 400,000 illegal aliens this year.
“If you open up your borders to one threat or one crisis, you’re opening your borders up to the vast, complex set of threats,” Morgan said.
“If you expand illegal immigration, you’re pulling essential resources off the line, opening those borders up to criminal aliens, to gang members, increased human smuggling, human trafficking, and drugs pouring into this country.”
