An illegal immigrant who was previously deported for raping a minor in California was arrested after re-entering the United States amid the record migrant surge, federal authorities said.
The 46-year-old Mexican national who unlawfully entered the United States Monday was taken into custody by US border agents at the El Centro Patrol Station in Southern California, US Customs and Border Protection officials announced Tuesday.
The convicted felon illegally entered the US roughly 29 miles west of Calexico in southern Imperial County.
He was taken to a processing center, where a record check revealed his prior 2007 conviction in Hemet, California, for rape, sodomy and oral copulation of a victim under the age of 18, immigration officials said.
The Mexican national, who was not publicly identified by CBP, was sentenced to nine years in prison for the sex crime convictions. He was then deported to his native Mexico in 2014, federal authorities said.
It is unclear where he served his prison time or if he finished his sentence in Mexico.
He has now been charged with re-entry after deportation as a convicted felon and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Agents from the El Centro Sector — who monitor 70 miles of the country’s border with Mexico — have either arrested or removed 17 suspects who were convicted or wanted on sexual offense charges in fiscal year 2021, CBP officials said.
A message seeking additional details from CBP officials about the Mexican national was not immediately returned Thursday.
The bust comes as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) requested a classified briefing from FBI and CIA officials on the arrest of two Yemeni nationals on the terror watchlist who illegally crossed the border amid the record migrant surge into the US, including thousands of unescorted children.
Meanwhile, Border Patrol agents in San Diego also arrested a previously deported child sex offender late Sunday, CBP officials said. The 35-year-old El Salvadorian national was one of two illegal aliens caught while hiding in thick brush in mountains just east of the Otay Mesa Port of Entry.
The convicted felon, who also was not publicly identified by CBP, was convicted in 2009 of aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13 in Virginia. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was deported to El Salvador after a portion of his prison term was suspended.
He has also been charged with felony re-entry after deportation and remains in federal custody. The second man nabbed late Sunday was returned to Mexico, CBP officials said.
