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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week that its officers arrested a Mexican illegal immigrant with a prior conviction for indecency with a child and who had been deported multiple times.
ICE said that its Enforcement and Removal Operations officers, working with officials in Webb County, Texas, arrested Miguel Angel Ponce Mejia earlier this month.
Ponce-Mejia is a 43-year-old Mexican national who has been deported five times to the United States. He was convicted of indecency with a child in 2007.
ICE said he was brought to their attention after an encounter with local law enforcement agencies, when local law enforcement stopped his vehicle and questioned and identified him.
BORDER PATROL NABS CONVICTED RAPIST, CHILD SEX OFFENDERS COMING ACROSS SOUTHERN BORDER
June 2, 2022: ICE agents conduct an enforcement operation in the U.S. interior. ((Immigration and Customs Enforcement))
Ponce-Mejia is said to have admitted to being a Mexican national and without documentation to be in the country legally. He is now in ICE custody.
“This is a great example of the excellent collaboration between ERO and local law enforcement, as we continue working together to accomplish our mission of removing public safety threats from our streets,” Miguel Vergara, acting field office director for ERO Harlingen, said in a statement.
The arrest comes after a 24-year-old Mexican national pleaded guilty this month to transporting and possessing child pornography after entering the U.S. earlier this year.
Christian Dolores Munoz-De La Rosa admitted to being part of a group of illegal immigrants caught near Carrizo Springs, Texas in June. When he was picked up, authorities examined his phones and discovered the illegal images.
MEXICAN ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CONVICTED OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY POSSESSION
The phone contained 116 images of children, some involving children as young as three-years-old.
Border Patrol has recently detailed multiple instance of child sex offenders attempting to gain entry to the United States. Agents have arrested 8,354 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions so far this fiscal year, including 248 convictions for sexual offenses.
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While that is a small percentage of the more than 200,000 migrants Border Patrol agents have encountered each month, it does not account for the more than 500,000 migrants who have got past overwhelmed agents this fiscal year so far.
