Border Patrol agents recently arrested two foreign nationals attempting to enter the U.S. illegally, and subsequent background investigations discovered that both of them were previously convicted of murder charges.
Agents working in the Havana, Texas, area Wednesday located and apprehended a Mexican national crossing illegally into U.S., according to a press release by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Authorities later determined that the individual, identified as Jose Mendez-Hernandez, had run-ins with the U.S. law enforcement in the past.
Mendez-Hernandez had been previously arrested and convicted of murder by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, and was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
Just several days later, agents caught another illegal alien convicted of the same crime.
MISSION, TEXAS – SEPTEMBER 10: U.S. Border Patrol agent Carlos Ruiz bleeds from a light head wound after chasing undocumented immigrants through the woods on September 10, 2019 in Mission, Texas. Ruiz said he was hit by a branch while he was pursuing a group that had crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas earlier in the day. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
Border Patrol agents working near Mission apprehended a man identified as Jaime Cantu-Leal, another Mexican national, on Saturday. A records check on Cantu-Leal revealed that he had been arrested by the McAllen Police Department in 1994 on murder charge. He was later convicted and given an 18-year sentence.
CBP stated that both men are currently being processed by authorities. They are also both subject to removal from the U.S.
“We’re here to keep dangerous people from entering the community,” Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said Tuesday. The two arrests were just the latest apprehensions of convicted criminals by the agency tasked with protecting the U.S. southern border.
In a speech before the Senate Homeland Security Committee earlier this month, CBP acting commissioner Mark Morgan that his agency conducted roughly 1.1 million enforcement actions during the 2019 fiscal year. These actions included the arrest of criminal illegal aliens, the seizure of thousands of guns, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of illicit narcotics.
“Although we’ve made great progress, I am here today to respectfully remind this committee and the American people that there continues to be a humanitarian crisis, and importantly, a national security crisis,” Morgan said during the committee. (RELATED: Nearly 80,000 Illegal Aliens Carried An Arrest Record Before Winning DACA Approval, Government Data Show)
“CBP seized nearly 3,000 weapons, 1,000 gang members, $75 million of illicit currency, and apprehended 16,000 criminal aliens — and this is just what we caught,” the CBP chief continued.
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