US Border Patrol agents in Arizona encountered and arrested an illegal immigrant convicted of child rape and incest on Monday, as the number of arrests of criminal migrants more than doubles from 2019.
Yuma Sector agents arrested Edgard Antonio Gutierrez-Martinez on Monday, according to sector chief patrol agent Chris T. Clem, who posted a photo of the illegal immigrant to Twitter on Wednesday.
Gutierrez-Martinez has felony convictions for first-degree child rape and incest, Clem revealed, adding that agents turned him over to US Marshals for prosecution that morning.
Authorities reportedly learned of his convictions when doing a background check, according to CBS 13.
His arrest comes as Border Patrol agents are seeing striking numbers of criminal illegal immigrants at the border. Through the end of August in FY 2021, which ended Oct. 1, 9,278 criminal illegal immigrants were arrested. There were 2,438 arrested in FY 2020 and 4,269 in FY 2019.
In the past week, Border Patrol agents in Texas have arrested several migrants crossing into the US with “serious criminal history,” including sexual abuse, indecent liberties with a child, and other criminal sexual offenses.
Last month, officials revealed 1,323,500 illegal immigrants attempted to cross from Mexico into the US this year.
In August, Border Patrol agents encountered 208,887 illegal immigrants, marking the first time that more than 200,000 illegal immigrant encounters have been recorded in consecutive months since February and March 2000 (which saw 211,328 and 220,063, respectively).
Republicans have urged transparency and action from the Biden administration on the crisis at the border, specifically calling on the White House to undo three actions it took at the beginning of the administration.
“This is unconscionable,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told reporters Wednesday. “And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris caused it. The way to fix it, is reverse the political decisions they made on January 20 of this year, they could do it and fix it. It is only partisan politics that prevents them from doing so.”
Despite the record numbers of encounters at the border, the State Department has said they beat the previous low for the amount of refugees allowed into the US. In FY 2021, the department claimed it allowed 11,411 refugees to enter the country, slightly less than the previous low of 11,814 set in 2020, according to the Associated Press.
The number reportedly does not include the thousands of Afghans brought to the US following the full US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.