Sex offender encounters at the southern border have spiked under President Joe Biden, the Washington Examiner reported.
The total number of deported sex offenders encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border jumped from a low of 58 arrests in fiscal year 2019 to 488 in 2021 and 365 so far in 2022, the Examiner reported Thursday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) listed 21 arrests of sex offenders in October ,and 20 in November, the outlet reported.
Texas Republican lawmakers who spoke to the Examiner on Wednesday night were angry at the Biden administration, which they blame for the migrant surge overall and the increase in encountered sex offenders.
"Border Patrol agents … are doing everything they can to find those sex offenders and those rapists and those murderers and those violent criminals," Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told the Examiner, "but they're being relegated to administrative duties inside some processing center.
"And they're not able to actually get out there — not to mention the overwhelming numbers. So it's just incomprehensible to think this is going on, and there's nothing being done."
Pfluger and GOP colleagues have called for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or risk impeachment next year over the migrant crisis.
"It's unbelievable," said Pfluger, who added that the border has reached a "flashing red" warning level.
Another Texas congressman, and former sheriff, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, blasted the administration for failing to police the border. He added that he was concerned about the migrants who evade arrest.
"Those are the bad hombres we should all be concerned about," Nehls said told the Examiner. "I bet you many of them are going to be with criminal records relating to sexual offenses or drug offenses or even terrorists. ... I don't know how Joe Biden sleeps at night."
According to CBP statistics, fewer than 1% of the 2.77 million encounters of illegal immigrants in the fiscal year that ended in September were of people previously convicted of a crime in the U.S.
Records outside of the U.S. are not available for border officials to examine.
The Examiner reported that arrests of criminals convicted of manslaughter and homicide have jumped by a greater percentage than that of sex offenders. More than 120 criminals convicted of homicide have been encountered trying to reenter the U.S. during the past two years.
It's a federal felony, punishable with up to 20 years in prison, to illegally reenter the country after being deported.
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