Border Patrol agents are continuing to apprehend violent criminals and gang members who are nearly all military age foreign nationals who entered the country illegally.
In about the past month, highlighted arrests of foreign nationals entering the country are some of the most violent criminals, including known gang members coming from Columbia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela, Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens notes.
Recent arrests made in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection El Paso Sector, which includes two west Texas counties and all of New Mexico, include individuals with a long list of violent crimes. Combined, violent criminal histories of those arrested include child molestation, rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, aggravated assault, rape, murder, manufacture/trafficking of firearms and ammunition and theft, among others.
Many have tattoos of images of “La Santa Muerte,” or the “Saint of Death,” and other images of violence, death and gang affiliations. Those who worship Santa Muerte believe she brings “Santísima Muerte,” or the “holiest death,” and are reportedly involved in ritualistic killings, according to the FBI, The Center Square has reported. One recent arrest of an alleged Mexican gang assassin in El Paso was known “for her extreme brutality such as dismembering bodies, removing hearts, and placing the hearts in front of ‘Sante Muerte’ altars and statues.”
