Former President Donald Trump made border security the central focus of his 2016 campaign. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” he said on the trail in June 2015.
In a fact check, The Washington Post gave Trump’s claim, “Four Pinocchios.” The liberal paper defines that as simply “Whoppers” — as in lies.
But new numbers appear to show something far different.
“Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio Sector in Texas have seen a 3,166% increase in arrests of convicted sex offenders compared to the same timeframe last fiscal year — as agents across the border continue to nab criminals with convictions for sex crimes, including against children,” Fox News reported on Thursday. “The agency said that since Oct. 1, the beginning of Fiscal Year 2021, agents in the sector have arrested 95 convicted sex offenders — making a 3,166% increase over the same timeframe last fiscal year.”
Border agents picked up 10 convicted sex offenders in just a week, from May 17 to 24. “The convictions of those apprehended include forcible sexual assault, sexual assault of a child under 14, sexual conduct with a person under 13, statutory rape, second-degree sexual assault of a child, and lewd and lascivious acts with a child,” Fox reported.
“The majority of these criminals were apprehended in our sector’s most remote areas, attempting to avoid detection by crossing far from populated areas,” Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin Skero said in a statement. “Our agents’ sign cutting and tracking skills were instrumental in capturing these criminals, preventing them from infiltrating our communities.”
The Del Rio sector isn’t the only one seeing sex offenders. Border patrol agents in El Centro Sector have arrested three illegal aliens with sex crime convictions since Saturday.
In some of his first actions in office, President Joe Biden did away with the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which kept foreigners who tried to enter the U.S. illegally in camps in Mexico while they awaited hearings. Instead, Biden returned to a “catch-and-release” policy in which illegal aliens are allowed to enter the U.S.
Suddenly, the flow of foreigners to the border exploded. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents apprehended nearly 100,000 people at the border in February. Last April, just more than 16,000 were captured at the border, according to Pew data.
In March, Team Biden blamed Trump. “Biden officials claim Trump officials did not fully cooperate with his transition team, hindering their ability get a realistic view of potential migration, and that Trump deconstructed the immigration and asylum system – which they then inherited,” the Daily Mail reported.
“As we were coming into the administration, we knew we were inheriting an absolute mess from the previous administration — that there were aspects of our legal immigration system that had been gutted and a department that lacked the personnel to administer our laws,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the director of the White House’s Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, according to CNN.
Joseph Curl covered the White House for a dozen years and ran the Drudge Report for four years. He can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter at @JosephCurl.