MS-13 Sex Offender Arrested in Texas

Asylum-seeking illegal immigrants sit by concertina wire fence while waiting to be transported by U.S. law enforcement officers after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 24, 2023. Go Nakamura/Reuters

Texas law enforcement has arrested a member of the MS-13 gang with a history of “sexual violence,” amid a round of arrests of criminal illegal aliens near the southern border, the governor’s office announced on Aug. 11.

“DPS Texas Rangers Special Operations Group arrested a known MS-13 gang member from Honduras, Emerson Lopez Fugon, after he was found hiding on a train in Maverick County near Eagle Pass,” an Aug. 11 press release from the Office of the Texas Governor reads. “Lopez Fugon is also a registered sex offender with a violent criminal history, including kidnapping, abduction, and sexual violence.”

MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is a gang that originates from the violent Northern Triangle region of Central America, predominantly El Salvador.

Chris Olivarez, a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) in the South Texas Region, credited the arrest to Operation Lone Star, introduced by Gov. Greg Abbott in March 2021 as a response to an increase in illegal immigration.

“If not for [DPS] & Gov. [Greg Abbott’s] Operation Lone Star, Lopez Fugon, a confirmed MS-13 gang member w/ a violent criminal history, would have made it further into the interior,” Mr. Olivarez wrote in an Aug. 10 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“It’s the men & women who proudly wear the Texas Tan that are on the front lines arresting criminals & protecting our state & country.”

In addition to the MS-13 gang member, DPS recently arrested a Honduran national for human smuggling and child pornography. In another incident, DPS troopers and special agents arrested a sex offender from Houston after disrupting a human smuggling attempt.

Commenting on the arrests, Mr. Abbott wrote in an Aug. 12 post on X that “Texas will continue to hold the line to keep our state and our country safe.”

According to the press release, more than 406,500 illegal immigrants have been apprehended since the start of Operation Lone Star. More than 32,700 criminal arrests have been made.

“Operation Lone Star continues to fill the dangerous gaps created by the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border,” the release reads.

“Every individual who is apprehended or arrested and every ounce of drugs seized would have otherwise made their way into communities across Texas and the nation due to President Joe Biden’s open border policies.”

Alien Sex Offenders Entering US

Among the numerous illegal aliens arrested for sexual offenses, many were previously deported from the United States and arrested upon reentry.

On July 31, a Mexican national who was convicted in Georgia for attempted rape in 2015 was arrested after he was found crossing the border illegally. In another incident, one of the illegal immigrants arrested near Bisbee, Arizona, was discovered to have a conviction in Utah from 2010 for sexually abusing a child.

Both were previously removed from the United States and now face federal prosecution for illegal reentry, which could result in a 20-year prison term.

The number of criminal noncitizens in the United States has been steadily picking up under the Biden administration.

In fiscal 2017, under the Trump administration, there were 137 arrests of such individuals charged with sexual offenses, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). These numbers were at 80, 58, and 156 in the subsequent fiscal years.

In fiscal 2021, when President Biden was in office, the number of such arrests jumped to 488. In fiscal 2022, there were 365 arrests. As of July 18, the CBP has already registered 205 arrests in fiscal 2023.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner in December 2022, Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) slammed the Biden administration for the growing number of sex offender arrests among migrants.

“Border Patrol agents ... are doing everything they can to find those sex offenders and those rapists and those murderers and those violent criminals, but they’re being relegated to administrative duties inside some processing center, and they’re not able to actually get out there—not to mention the overwhelming numbers. So it’s just incomprehensible to think this is going on and there’s nothing being done,” he said.

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), a former Texas sheriff, called the Biden administration’s response to the border crisis “almost criminal.”

“Those are the bad hombres we should all be concerned about,” he said. “I bet you many of them are going to be with criminal records relating to sexual offenses or drug offenses or even terrorists. ... I don’t know how Joe Biden sleeps at night.”

Strong Border Measures

Amid the border crisis, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is urging fellow Republican members to support blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until the Biden administration agrees to boost border security measures.

In a letter (pdf) circulated this week to fellow lawmakers, Mr. Roy said: “Criminal cartels maintain operational control of the border. Migrants are dying on Texas ranches and along the Rio Grande. Little children are enslaved in the sex-trafficking trade.

“Fences are being cut, livestock are escaping, ranchers are threatened, and high-speed chases are tearing through small towns. Perhaps most deadly, dangerous fentanyl is pouring into our communities via an open border—empowering China and cartels while killing 200 Americans per day.”

Mr. Roy noted that federal funding expires on Sept. 30. As such, he said, “We must use the power of the purse to force President Biden to end the carnage resulting from open borders.”

Some of the demands raised by Mr. Roy in return for DHS funding include firing DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, adopting policies empowering law enforcement to target “dangerous cartels,” and signing strong border security legislation.