Border Patrol agents in Texas and Arizona continue to apprehend previously deported child sex offenders after they illegally re-enter the U.S.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Falfurrias Station received a call for assistance from the Premont, Texas, Police Department on December 19. A local police officer conducted a traffic stop on what he believed to be a human smuggling vehicle, according to Rio Grande Valley Sector officials.

Agents arrived on the scene and conducted immigration interviews with the eight people allegedly being smuggled by the driver. The agents determined the eight passengers to be illegal immigrants, officials stated. The agents transported the migrants to the Falfurrias Border Patrol station where a biometric background investigation identified one of the men as a previously deported Honduran national.

Officials report the Honduran man received a conviction from a court in New York City relating to sexual abuse of a minor. The records indicated that the court convicted the man of an act in a manner to injure a child under the age of 17. The court sentenced him to 364 days in jail. He was subsequently removed from the U.S.

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the State Route 83 immigration checkpoint near the Arizona town of Sonoita arrested a Mexican man they determined to be illegally present in the U.S., officials stated.

During a biometric investigation, agents identified the man as 38-year-old Gustavo Gonzalez-Rodriguez. Court records revealed a conviction in California in 2001 for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, officials stated. The court required the Mexican man to register as a sex offender.

His extensive criminal history also included a 2016 conviction in a South Carolina court for assault and battery. He received a 10-year sentence for that crime. At some point following the sentencing, immigration officers removed him to Mexico.

Both previously deported felons could face prosecution for aggravated re-entry after removal as a sex offender. If convicted on the charges, the previously deported criminal aliens could face up to 20 years each in federal prison.