Two Previously-Deported Sex Offenders Arrested Again near Border

Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector arrested two more previously deported sex offenders shortly after they crossed the border from Mexico. Officials report these types of arrests on a frequent basis.

Early Friday morning, agents working near Ajo, Arizona, found a man crossing the border illegally. The agents arrested the 32-year-old Honduran national, Jose Pineda-Torres. After taking the illegal alien to the Ajo Station for processing, a records check revealed a 2012 conviction for Facilitation of Attempted Aggravated Sexual Battery. The conviction occurred in Robertson County, Tennessee. The agents turned the man over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for detention while the man faces charges of illegal reentry after removal as a sex offender.

A short time later, agents working out of the Douglas Station encountered another foreign national after he illegally crossed the border into the U.S. Agents made contact with a 34-year-old Mexican national and questioned him about his status. The agents arrested Adonay Merrillo-Arellano near Douglas, Arizona.

After transporting the Mexican national to the Douglas Station for processing, agents learned the man had previously been deported. His removal from the U.S. followed a 2006 conviction in Morrow County, Oregon on a charge of 3rd-degree rape.

Agents turned Merrillo-Arellano over prosecutors who are expected to file charges of illegal reentry after removal as a sex offender.

The problem of deported sex offenders reentering the country is a recurring issue all along the border. In the Rio Grande Valley Sector alone, Border Patrol agents in South Texas arrested nearly 100 previously deported sex offenders this fiscal year as of March 13. The fiscal year began on October 1, 2016.

Across the nation, ICE officials attempting to deport criminal alien sex offenders released nearly 600 back into communities across the country. Many of those because their home countries refused to accept their repatriation.