A suspected MS-13 gang member was arrested by Border Patrol agents on Wednesday after he was caught illegally entering the United States near the San Diego sector, Customs and Border Protection said.
A border agent was patrolling the mountains near Forest Gate Road at 12:45 a.m. when he encountered six men near the border wall, according to the CBP. One of them was a 28-year-old El Salvadoran national who is a documented MS-13 gang member.
All six men admitted to being illegally present in the U.S. and were placed under arrest before they were transferred to a nearby Border Patrol station for processing, the press release said. The El Salvadoran man will be processed for removal at a local CBP station, the agency said, along with the other five men.
Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke commended the agents who arrested the gang member, saying, “Their hard work keeps our neighborhoods safe.”
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Earlier this month, police arrested four suspects in Prince William County in Virginia with ties to the MS-13 gang, a local Fox affiliate reported. The Justice Department also placed terrorism charges against 14 leaders of the gang in January.
CBP data show there have been 396,958 encounters with migrants at the border in fiscal 2021. The agency reported more than 100,000 encounters in February.
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“We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in March.
