Border Crisis Opens the Door to Criminal Aliens

According to a tweet from Chief Border Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak of the Laredo (Texas) Sector, a Mexican national threatened a fellow illegal border-crosser with a knife in order to evade arrest by Laredo Border agents.

Eduardo Segovia-Luna had crossed illegally into the United States from Mexico with two other people. When a Laredo South Station Border Patrol agent attempted to apprehend the three aliens, Segovia-Luna pulled a knife and held it to the neck of one of the others, “using him as a human shield and demanding to be released.”

Once backup arrived, Segovia-Luna dropped the knife and surrendered. He now faces criminal charges connected to the assault.

The troubling reality is that this is not a rare occurrence. So far in fiscal year 2021, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has apprehended more than 6,600 criminal illegal aliens. A criminal alien refers to those who have been convicted of state or federal offenses, in the U.S. or abroad, such as murder, rape, sexual assault, burglary, and robbery. However, by far, the most common crimes committed by criminal illegal aliens apprehended at the southern border are related to the smuggling of illicit drugs into the United States. These encounters regularly turn violent in nature, as intercepting a single drug shipment often cost cartels millions of dollars.

As of March, agents in the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) Sector have arrested more than 861 criminal aliens, including 63 gang members and 92 sex offenders, in the fiscal year to date. At the end of April, agents in the Laredo sector arrested five MS-13 gang members in a span of seven days. And on May 7, Tucson Border agents arrested a registered sex-offender previously convicted of rape and burglary in Riverside, California, attempting to illegally re-enter the United States near Ajo, Arizona.

The crisis on our border is providing opportunities for criminals and drug smugglers to exploit the massive influx of migrants attempting to cross the border illegally. The Biden administration’s lax policies and inaction on the border are threatening the safety of the American public, especially those in border communities.