Two gang members and a convicted sex offender were among those apprehended at the border this week.
Border Patrol officers arrested 23 migrants on Tuesday and Wednesday for illegally entering the country, the agency announced in a statement.
McAllen Border Patrol agents arrested a group of nine people on Tuesday morning. One was an El Salvadorian 30-year-old male, who officials confirmed was a member of the 18th Street gang. The next day, officers at the Weslaco Border station apprehended 10 more migrants entering the United States illegally, including a member of the Mara-Salvatrucha gang, also known as MS-13.
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Officers at the Rio Grande City Border Patrol Station apprehended four other migrants attempting to cross unlawfully. One of them was a Guatemalan national named Edwin Morales-Morales, who was previously deported after being arrested for sexual assault of a child and subsequently sentenced to 10 years of probation.
A total of 1.12 million people have tried to enter the U.S. from Mexico unlawfully during the government’s fiscal year 2021, which began in October 2020. That is more than the 459,000 people in 2020 and 977,000 in 2019.
Illegal immigration, which was at a lull during the pandemic, has swelled in recent months. The number of attempted illegal crossings in March hit the highest level in more than two decades.
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Those levels continued to grow in April and May, as more than 180,000 people attempted to enter the country between ports of entry or were denied at border crossings. That number is expected to hit nearly 190,000 in June, the Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday.
