Del Rio Sector agents have arrested 95 convicted sex offenders this fiscal year alone.
Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector in Texas arrested 10 convicted sex offenders in a single week as they tried to get into the U.S. illegally -- the latest batch of criminals nabbed by agents at the border.
The arrests were made between May 17 and24, Border Patrol said in a statement, with nationals from Honduras and Mexico among those arrested.
The convictions of those apprehended include forcible sexual assault, sexual assault of a child under 14, sexual conduct with a person under 13, statutory rape, second-degree sexual assault of a child, and lewd and lascivious acts with a child.
"The majority of these criminals were apprehended in our sector’s most remote areas, attempting to avoid detection by crossing far from populated areas," Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero said in a statement. "Our agents’ sign cutting and tracking skills were instrumental in capturing these criminals, preventing them from infiltrating our communities."
The arrests come days after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that agents near Abrams, Texas, arrested a Salvadoran man who had been arrested in Washington for the rape of a child and later convicted and sentenced to 34 months in prison and community service.
The migrant group he was traveling with included one unaccompanied child, CBP said in a release.
Earlier this month, agents in Mission, Texas, arrested a 49-year-old Salvadoran who had entered the U.S. illegally and had a previous conviction for sexual contact of a 9-year-old in New York City. He was sentenced in 2014 to a year in jail for second-degree sexual abuse.
In March, CBP announced the arrest of multiple convicted "sexual predators" caught trying to enter illegally, including some with child sex convictions.
In April, the agency announced that in a span of just two days, it had picked up three convicted child sex offenders among groups of illegal immigrants. One had been charged with aggravated sexual battery of a victim under 13 and was later convicted in Virginia.