Exclusives

EXCLUSIVE: Border Officials Slap Cuffs On Five Fugitives

CBP photo by Jaime Rodriguez

Federal agents working along the southern border arrested five people wanted on serious felony charges abroad and in the U.S. in less than a week.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents assigned to ports of entry around Laredo, Texas, apprehended individuals charged with homicide, indecency with children and other heinous crimes in late March, according to information exclusively shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The major busts follow in the wake of record-setting inactivity along the U.S.-Mexico border since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

CBP officers working at Laredo’s Colombia-Solidarity Bridge arrested Victoria Fernandez Lopez, a 31-year-old Mexican national, on March 27 after discovering she was subject to an active felony warrant for indecency with a child, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Two days later, officers assigned to the Gateway Bridge in Brownsville, Texas, arrested  Jose Arturo Alfaro Acuna, a 26-year-old Mexican national, after learning he was wanted in his home country for homicide and abuse of office.

Fernandez was taken to the Webb County jail in Texas and Acuna was ultimately handed over to Mexican authorities, according to DHS.

Border agents at the Eagle Pass International Bridge on March 29 arrested Efren Gonzalez Dominguez, a 37-year-old American, upon discovering he was wanted in New Mexico on an active felony warrant for sexual assault, DHS officials confirmed. Two days later, CBP agents also arrested Epifanio Benitez and Joel Herrera, two American citizens who attempted travel at different international crossings and both wanted for alleged sexual assault of children.

“In the span of just five days, CBP officers at ports of entry in the Laredo area apprehended five fugitives with felony charges,” Acting DHS Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement obtained by the DCNF. “The charges of those apprehended included homicide, sexual assault, and indecency with a child.”

“We have delivered the most secure border in American history,” Bis continued. “We will not allow criminals to enter our country and terrorize our communities.”

Agents made the apprehensions as unlawful border crossings have plummeted to historical lows, allowing officials to effectively end catch-and-release and erase what was an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis during the Biden administration.

DHS in late March declared it had achieved ten consecutive months of zero releases at the southern border, building off a trend that began when Trump re-entered the Oval Office and launched a series of executive actions aimed at tightening immigration enforcement along the border and in the interior of the country.

“After four years in which millions and millions of illegal aliens poured across our borders totally unfettered and unchecked, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history, by far,” the President declared in his February State of the Union address. “In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States, but we will always allow people to come in legally, people that will love our country and will work hard to maintain our country.”