“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,”
Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX)
This Thanksgiving, federal law enforcement agents in Eagle Pass caught three convicted sex offenders in separate incidents between Nov. 21 and Nov. 24 when each man crossed the Rio Grande in small groups trying to avoid getting caught by Border Patrol, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
All three men had been convicted of crimes against children and then deported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and were attempting to reenter the U.S.
- Nov. 21, while conducting line watch operations, Eagle Pass agents encountered four subjects attempting to avoid detection near Eagle Pass. All subjects were apprehended and transported to the Eagle Pass processing center. During processing, record checks revealed that one subject, Gelix Edgardo Barralaga, 44, a Honduran national, was convicted of indecent liberties with a child, in North Carolina, in 2007. He was sentenced to one year and eight months confinement and most recently deported in 2009.
- Nov. 22, Eagle Pass agents apprehended a 35-year-old Guatemalan national, as he attempted to avoid detection near Eagle Pass. Record checks revealed he has an active warrant for a probation violation and was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, in Houston, on March 21 of this year. He was sentenced to five years probation and was deported on May 16 of this year. The subject was turned over to the Maverick County Sheriff’s Office for an active warrant.
- Nov. 24, At approximately 11:45 pm, while conducting line watch operations, Eagle Pass agents encountered 15 subjects attempting to avoid detection near Eagle Pass. All subjects were apprehended and transported to the Eagle Pass processing center. Record checks revealed that Juan Mauricio-Simon, 47, a Guatemalan national, was convicted of indecency with a child sexual contact, in Pflugerville, Texas, in 2014. He was sentenced to five years confinement and most recently deported in 2020.
Pfluger and GOP colleagues have called for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or risk impeachment next year over the migrant crisis.