June 6, 2019 422 PM
EL PASO – U.S. Border Patrol Agents arrested a previously deported child molester as he attempted to blend in with a group of people making an illegal entry approximately four miles east of the Fort Hancock Port of Entry in the El Paso Lower Vallery, according to a CBP news release.
Early last Wednesday morning, agents working near the Fort Hancock Port of Entry using infrared technology, were able to apprehend two individuals that had just made an illegal entry into the U.S. Responding agents located and began to follow the two sets of footprints and subsequently found the pair attempting to conceal themselves in the desert brush. Both were transported to the Fort Hancock station for processing where it was discovered that one of the subjects was a convicted sex offender.
Record checks revealed that, 29-year-old Heriberto Quiroz-Garcia from Mexico, had been previously charged by Cochise County Sheriff’s Office with “Sexual Misconduct with a Minor” in 2015. Quiroz-Garcia then received a sentence of probation for life and was subsequently removed from the U.S. through Nogales, Arizona.
Quiroz-Garcia was transferred to the El Paso County Detention Facility where he will remain in custody pending criminal and immigration prosecution for his prior order of removal and criminally prosecuted for illegal re-entry.
A short time lastr, agents from the Las Cruces station were called out to assist Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Officers with a vehicle stop on Interstate 25 mile marker 10. Through questioning, the subjects admitted being in the U.S. illegally and were traveling to Albuquerque to seek employment.
The subjects were transported to the Las Cruces station for processing where it was discovered that a 30-year-old Mexican national was a registered sex offender. The subject was convicted of “Sexual Contact with individual less than 11 years old” in November 2009 at Rockland County Court, New York. The subject was sentenced to one year confinement and was then removed from the U.S.
The subject’s prior order of removal will be reinstated and will await prosecution for illegal re-entry while in custody at the Dona Ana County Detention Facility.
This is an ongoing situation that Border Patrol Agents face in southern New Mexico and Texas: hundreds of parents and children are being encountered by agents after having faced a dangerous trek north while convicted criminals attempt to avoid detection by circumventing agents who are occupied detaining large family groups.
