Webb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Fred Garza offers condolences to the victims' families.

With the rise in attention to police violence, there has been increased speculation about what kind of people are drawn to law enforcement. In the case of the U.S. Department of Customs and Border Protection, the answer is now “a literal serial killer.” Texas authorities arrested Juan David Ortiz, a Border Patrol agent, on September 15 after an intended victim managed to escape and flag down a highway patrol officer.

Ortiz was targeting sex workers. In a press conference, Webb County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Fred Garza acknowledged “Ortiz targeted all [the] victims due to their profession and being vulnerable.” The press conference is widely available, but I will not be linking to it, because of the deadnaming of Ortiz’s third victim, Janelle Ortiz (no relation). Ortiz’s first two victims were 29-year-old Melissa Ramirez and 42-year-old Claudine Luera. The fourth victim remains a Jane Doe at this time.

x 1/2: Janelle Ortiz was a 28 year old translatina who died at the hands of a U.S Border Patrol agent last Friday, September 15th. The agent has been arrested and charged with murder. #SayHerName #TransVisible pic.twitter.com/6hUwEcS3MR Ã¢ÂÂ Equality Texas (@EqualityTexas) September 18, 2018

Chief Deputy Garza is not wrong. Sex workers are extremely vulnerable to this kind of targeted violence, and are often not taken seriously by law enforcement.