Who's coming to AZ from Mexico?
by Pamela Hughes/KTAR (June 17th, 2010 @ 9:00am)
PHOENIX -- Arizona's border with Mexico is the busiest crossing for illegal immigrants, and a number of them are criminals, according to the Border Patrol.
Last year, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol caught 240,000 people trying to sneak into the United States illegally.
"Right about now, we're apprehending between 400 and 600 people a day," said Colleen Agle with the Border Patrol. She said this is the slow time of year; the number of illegal crossers peaks at around 1,000 a day in cooler weather.
Several criminals are among the illegal immigrants, Agle said.
"Rapists, child molesters, a lot of violent gang members."
She said it's tough to determine just what percentage of illegal immigrants have criminal backgrounds, but agents encounter them on a daily basis.
In the past few days, agents at Douglas have arrested an illegal immigrant who had been convicted of rape and another who had been convicted of having sex with a child under 3 years old. A child molester was arrested at a Nogales border crossing and an illegal who had been convicted of manslaughter was arrested in Casa Grande.
"We definitely see these types of individuals on a weekly basis," said Agle, "and I'd say pretty close to every day, we're apprehending somebody (criminal) -- whether it's a child molester or some sort of sex offender or violent gang member. Those are definitely people who are trying to get into the United States."
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Originally Posted by Knappster
